St Jude’s knows a healthy mind and a healthy body go hand in hand, which is why, for the thirteenth year in a row, a team of international doctors and health professionals volunteered for two weeks at The School of St Jude to perform free health check-ups for all students.

For the first time, the International Health Check team tested students across three different schools – the primary school, Smith secondary school and the new girls’ secondary school. Each student received a physical exam, checking their height and weight and an eye and ear test as well.

The team was made up of eight doctors, four orthoptists, two audiologists, a physiotherapist and seven dedicated helpers. There was also a social worker and a psychologist who worked with the welfare department and the new school counsellor. 

“This year we are lucky enough to have quite a number of female doctors on our team which has meant we can have more female doctors at the girls’ school and target the male doctors to the boys in the lower grades over at Smith Secondary Campus,” Melbourne physiotherapist and team leader Jane says.

Dr Astrid, a semi-retired doctor, was new to the Health Check team but not to St Jude’s. She decided to sponsor two male students, Shabani and Joffrey, after meeting St Jude’s Founder Gemma Sisia when she was presenting in Armidale over 15 years ago.      

“To see [the students’] excitement at being part of this school, from being selected to attend the school and in later years to see their commitment to this school is amazing. All the Form 6 students I spoke to intend on joining the Community Service Year program after graduation,” Astrid reflects, when asked about what she liked most about the health checks.

Caroline, an orthoptist, has been part of the team for three years now. She says the opportunity for all students to be seen by health professionals is what she likes about the program. She says a highlight has been returning this year and seeing improvements in the eye health of students.      

“Last year, I tested a boy's eyes for the first time. His vision was 6/15, which is not very good and indicated he had a vision impairment,” she explains, “so, last year we recommended he go to an optometrist to get a pair of glasses. Today when I saw him, he had his glasses on and he could see 6/6, which is equivalent to 20/20 vision. That was only possible because we assessed him last year. It was amazing!”

The annual health checks are pivotal in ensuring our students’ success in their studies. Conducting them early in the academic calendar year allows any health concerns to be detected and then referred to health professionals in Arusha for further support when required.       

The timing of this year’s health checks was very opportune in the current context of COVID-19. Dr Craig, an infectious diseases specialist joining us on his seventh health check visit advised St Jude’s on best measures and preparations to keep our staff and students safe during this challenging time. 

Until next year’s health checks, we are certain our students are now ready to tackle this academic year healthy and strong! 

You can keep our students and staff healthy too by donating to our Area of Greatest Need!  Your support will ensure St Jude’s has access to the resources it needs to tackle the new challenges ahead.

“We love visitors!” It’s impossible to miss the blue words emblazoned on the back of the bright yellow school buses belonging to The School of St Jude in Arusha, Tanzania.

It’s also impossible not to feel welcome from the moment you set foot on the Sisia Campus in Moshono. We arrived at St Jude’s halfway through our daughter Kate’s two-year tenure there in the Marketing team.

Our guide for our four-day visit is Frank, a fresh St Jude’s graduate undertaking a year-long internship with the Visitor Team as part of his Community Service Year, before commencing university. His first-hand experience makes him an authentic and invested host.

On day one, Frank gives us a tour of the primary campus, situated below stunning Mount Meru, Tanzania’s second highest mountain. It’s jacaranda time and in the morning, the students grab brooms and willingly help to sweep up the purple-carpet playground. Australian students would never embrace a task with such enthusiasm.

On entering a grade four music class, we are greeted with a loud, unified chorus of, “we love visitors” and I find myself learning some drumming alongside a couple of eager 11 year-olds. With more than 1,000 visitors per year, we’re not a novelty; yet we are received with warmth and grace.

One afternoon, we take the school bus to visit the home of Justina, a Standard 5 student who lives with her older sister and father. We enter a single windowed room inside a basic brick compound, furnished with one double bed, a sofa, a coffee table and assorted possessions in stacked boxes against the wall. I foolishly think this is just one room of a larger house. Not so. This room is the sum total of their existence. There is no power, no running water and a kerosene burner for cooking.

“How has being at St Jude’s changed Justina?” I ask her father, a cobbler.

“Justina is doing so well, she really wants to learn and now she wants to be a teacher,” he responds, his eyes shining with pride.

I am overwhelmed by this home visit. It reiterates the work St Jude’s is doing: taking the poorest children with the brightest minds and educating them free of charge in order to fight poverty and create the leaders of tomorrow.

We leave the family with a customary St Jude’s care package, to assist with some basic living needs including laundry soap, rice, flour, sugar, tea and a solar powered lamp. It is the least we can do. The best we can do though, is to sponsor Justina’s scholarship for her remaining school years. 

On our second day, we travel the 25km on the yellow bus out to the secondary school at Usa River, known as Smith Campus. Reminiscent of an American college campus, Smith is seriously impressive. It boasts a large library, computer labs, art room, well-kept sports fields and a farm, which supplies some of the vegetables for the 3,400 meals served daily across both of the campuses.

Importantly, our visitor experience is not confined to within the school gates. Frank takes us to visit a nearby government school where we meet another St Jude’s intern who is volunteer teaching English as part of his Community Service Year. The contrast is confronting: blackboards with peeling paint, 40 plus children in each class, and a library with tattered World Book encyclopedias from the 1970s. It highlighted the real life situation for the majority of Tanzanian students. A Tanzanian adult averages only 5.8 years of schooling.

St Jude’s was named after the patron saint of hopeless causes. Our visitor experience left us believing that this cause could not be any more hopeful.

P.S. On arriving home, we formalised our sponsorship arrangement and are looking forward to hearing about Justina’s progress as she continues her education.

We love visitors! You too can have the experience of a life-time by visiting St Jude’s. Visit our website for more information.

Judith stands confidently before two of her trusted peers in the Visitor Centre at The School of St Jude. It’s rehearsal day for St Jude’s 2020 Australian promotional tour and Judith’s been handpicked by ‘Mama Gemma’ Sisia, St Jude’s School Founder, to accompany her on her upcoming trip Down Under.

In front of some of her peers, Judith practices telling her tale of triumph. It’s a tale that’s well-known to those in the room and will soon be shared with people across Australia. It’s the tale of how St Jude’s transforms lives. 

Judith is preparing for the journey of a lifetime. This month, she is boarding her very first flight, bound for Australia. There she will meet incredible Australian supporters, who have built the school she loves – the place she calls her home – from scratch.

“When Gemma invited me to join her and help to spread the word about our school, I was so excited! I just couldn’t believe it was me going there!” Judith enthuses. 

“The culture in Tanzania is very different from Australian culture. I will try to learn the differences between here and there, and I will love learning about a new part of the world.” 

“Of course, I know that we share a great love for St Jude’s, so I know I will love everyone I meet!” she says.

Judith started in Standard 1 at St Jude’s and is now getting ready for university. She has benefitted from 13 years of 100% free, quality education and she believes it’s made the world of difference to her. 

“Joining St Jude’s changed my life so much. I’m happy and grateful to meet our supporters. I came from a humble family and the sponsors and donors are the ones who enabled me to go to one of the best schools in Tanzania!” she shares. 

“It was this golden chance that opened the door and helped me to realise that poverty could not hinder my success forever.”

While it’s been a challenging year for so many members of our international family, Judith hopes she will bring a story of joy to the people who gifted her with an education. 

“I know that so many people in Australia are suffering right now, and it pains my heart. I hope Gemma and I can bring some smiles to their faces, because they really deserve to be happy.” 

Would you like to hear more about Judith’s remarkable journey? Be sure to attend a public tour event in a town near you!

Rickson has always enjoyed putting himself in other people’s shoes.

When he was a little boy, he and his brother Reuben would escape to a room in their house which housed their father’s tools and, mimicking their Dad, they’d pretend to fix household objects.

Now, the 21-year-old gets to fulfil his passion for learning about others as an intern with the St Jude’s Visitor Team as part of his Community Service Year. Every day he meets different people from different parts of the world who visit St Jude’s.

“I love to know what’s in people’s heads. Hearing other peoples’ experiences helps me to understand more than what I have seen or done myself,” he says. 

For 12 years, Rickson attended St Jude’s and graduated in May 2019. When Rickson first started school, his mother, Neema, put together a ‘wish box’. Every morning before school, she would ask Rickson and Reuben to write down a wish they had for the day. 

“I would always put down that I wanted to be top of my class in academics,” says Rickson. 

After the family had finished dinner and watched the news, Neema would sit down with her sons and read out their wishes. 

“Give me some examples of how you achieved your wish,” she would say. His mother always wanted to know how they were planning to achieve their dreams. 

When Rickson began at St Jude’s, he recalls winning the Citizen Award for being a good class member. When his mother found out, she asked him, “What will you do next?” She did the same when he scooped the maths, science awards and even a music award. 

When Rickson was finishing Standard 7, the end of primary school, his mother fell ill. He spent many hours conversing with her, trying to keep her spirits up. When he was 14, one of their morning conversations ended up being their last as his mother passed away that night. Overcome with disbelief and grief, it was Rickson’s Bibi (grandmother), Anifiambazi, who got him through that traumatic time.

“My grandma became the person I could trust over anyone,” he says, adding that his grandmother only recently passed away unexpectedly. 

“Every day with my grandmother was a lesson,” says Rickson. “I wasn’t sad on the day of her funeral, I was thankful for everything I had learnt.” 

Rickson credits his resilience, determination and aspirational outlook on the lessons he learnt from his mother and grandmother. He also knows that, were it not for his place at St Jude’s, he would never have been able to dream of reaching the goals he now sets for himself. 

“I’m looking forward to going to university and meeting even more new people. In my future I’d like to travel. I want to do my mum, brother and grandmother proud.”

If you’d like to know more about Rickson and his internship, be sure to listen to the latest episode of our podcast, Inside St Jude’s – Conversations with Gemma Sisia.

Anne Bailey sits in the primary assembly hall, facing out across the lawn. She stares at a building with a low-hanging, green tin roof – the first-ever building of St Jude’s, which today is the Visitors’ Centre.

Behind this stands a building that looks like a house. Indeed, in the very early days, it used to be the home of Founder, Gemma and her husband, Richard. Today it hosts the IT Department.

As Anne looks out, she recalls the story of how her daughter, Angela, once stood there with Gemma, looking out over what was nothing but a cornfield. 

Gemma turns to Angela and announces – “I’m going to build a school here!”

“We’ve always believed in Gemma and her vision,” Anne explains. With her daughter having travelled halfway across the world to join in the venture, it’s easy to see why Anne was keen to remain optimistic. 

Today, Anne is spending time with the new Form 1 students, helping them to settle into St Jude’s. With a background in English Second Language (ESL) teaching and decades’ worth of experience assisting adults and children by teaching intensive English courses, she is a particularly useful visitor. 

Unlike the students who have continued into secondary from studying at St Jude’s primary school, the new Form 1s who have joined this year from government schools have never had their lessons taught in English before, and are some way behind their peers in comprehension and confidence.

But she is also here to be with her daughter, Deputy Director of St Jude’s, Angela, as the school celebrates yet another landmark – the opening of St Jude’s Girls’ Secondary School.

Over the past 18 years, there has been an enormous amount of people along the way who have helped make St Jude’s the school it is today. Teachers, volunteers, sponsors and of course, the students.

The Bailey family have been with St Jude’s since the beginning, maintaining a connection that lasts to this day. 

“I remember when the library was first built – it had a staircase to the second floor,” says Anne. “One of the parents had never used stairs before, these are the things you remember.” 

Back then, the road outside St Jude’s was filled with potholes, rocks and dirt (today it’s made of tarmac) and the only way to get into town was by hitching a ride. 

As we begin 2020, St Jude’s has close to 1,800 students, and 400 of them are in the midst of celebrating the opening of their very own St Jude’s Girls’ Secondary School. The importance of educating girls resonates with Anne.

“When I was younger there were less chances to go to university,” says Anne, who is now 67 years old.

In the 90’s she decided to go to university as a mature-age student, and during her time there she met other women who were a similar age to her. She remembers one friend who had had to leave school so she could work to support her brother’s education. 

“When I was in my 20’s people tended to marry younger,” says Anne. “Women were more likely to be bringing up a family than setting out on a career path and some people thought it wasn’t necessary for women to have a tertiary education.” 

Times and attitudes have changed in her homeland, Australia, since then and Anne sees a new horizon for the girls attending St Jude’s now too. 

“These girls will be able to follow their passions and go far,” says Anne. “They just have to go for it!”

Angela, agrees. 

“They should be able to be independent and follow their dreams,” says Angela. “And if they get married, it should be their choice.” 

For Anne and Angela both, the opening ceremony for the girls’ school will be a day to remember.

“I was walking through the girls’ school yesterday,” says Angela. “And one of the Form 1 students who I’ve known since primary school called out to me.” 

“I asked her how she felt and she said she was really excited. That’s when it sunk in for me and I thought to myself – “this is such an awesome thing!” 

Grace is sitting in the back of a St Jude’s shuttle bus, tumbling across the flats of Arusha, towards Smith Secondary Campus. To her left looms Mount Meru, it’s summit shrouded in cloud.Since 2008, Grace, who is visiting from Scotland, has been sponsoring the scholarship of a Form 5 girl by the name of Rahima. Today, she will meet Rahima for the first time. 

“I’m excited,” says Grace, whose eyes remain fixed on the Arushan landscape. “We’ve been exchanging letters for eleven years.”

Grace lives in Shetland, an island off the north coast of Scotland. Her distinguished career in theatre has included being associate director of the acclaimed ‘War Horse’ production, when it toured Australia.

“Directing is about interpreting a story, and providing depth to that story,” says Grace.

The story she sees in Tanzania is the effect education can have on a community.

“Education can change not just one person’s life,” she says. “But also the lives of their family, even their community.”

On arriving at Smith Secondary Campus, Grace walks across the green lawns, and inside the Visitor Centre, waiting for Rahima.

“It’s like a university,” she says, looking outside, at the surrounding buildings with students teeming up and down the long, winding staircases.

After a short while, Rahima walks into the room, visibly excited to see Grace for the first time. 

“I remember when you were little,” says Grace, looking disbelievingly at 19-year-old Rahima. “You would send me drawings of rainbows with stickers.”

The two leave the room, side by side. Outside, a group of Rahima’s friends are waving excitedly.

“They are happy for me that I am meeting my sponsor,” says Rahima, with a smile.

Together, Rahima and Grace, with a teacher accompanying them, hop into the school bus as it takes off towards a remote suburb called Olasiti, where Rahima’s mother lives. The drive will take an hour and a half - this doesn’t bother the pair though as they begin to talk in earnest. 

Rahima chats about her favourite writer, Adam Shafi Adam, while Grace shows pictures of Scotland on her phone.  

Grace can’t stop looking at Rahima, seemingly mesmerised by the fact that the girl she has been sending letters to since the age of seven is now sitting next to her, on the cusp of womanhood. 

As the bus moves closer to Olasiti, the roads shift from asphalt to dirt. Fields of maize and beans extend as far as the eye can see. As the bus bounces over rocks and dodges potholes, it becomes hard to maintain conversation.

Rather than sit in silence, Grace and Rahima begin singing songs together, over the racket of the road.

Eventually, the bus turns left down a street filled with playing children and dust covered dwellings.

Out steps a woman from behind a rusted tin fence, bearing a big smile and wearing a long grey dress littered with blue polka dots.

The woman’s name is Margaret, and she is Rahima’s mother.

When Rahima and her brother were young, their father walked out on them. He took all their belongings with him.

Margaret didn’t have a job at the time – she was left with no furniture, and no money. A friend of hers, a woman from the neighbourhood, heard about Margaret’s predicament and decided to pay the bills.

Eventually, Margaret got a job as a housekeeper, slowly piecing her life back together, before her life took another turn – this time for the better.

One day, Margaret was at the market when an announcement was made about a school named St Jude’s that was accepting applications. On a whim, Margaret decided to have her daughter sit the exam, joining thousands of other applicants from around Arusha.

In August of 2007, Margaret was visited by St Jude’s – her seven-year-old daughter had got a place.

Now, Margaret is proudly welcoming her guest into her home – filled with the furniture she bought, and the daughter she raised.

Inside the one-room house, everything is blue – the couches, the walls, even the curtains.

Margaret presents Grace with a bright red ‘kikoi’, a traditional African woven cloth, to say thank you for sponsoring her daughter’s education. 

“In Scotland, I will put this on my wall,” says a grateful Grace.

“Come back again,” says Margaret. “And I will get you another one.”

The two women begin to talk about Rahima, and her bright future.

“She will be a minister in our government,” says Margaret, absent mindedly stroking her daughter’s shoulder. “Maybe even the President!”

“I want to be a lawyer,” laughs Rahima.

“What would you do if you were President?” asks Grace.

“I would change everything,” jokes Rahima.

The three women step outside to take photos. The summit of Mount Meru is now clear, its contours rippling in a brilliant blend of orange and yellow, that can only be found during an African sunset.

Standing on the front step of the house, Grace and Margaret grin at the St Jude’s photographer, Onesmo, while Rahima is filled with teenage embarrassment from all the attention.

“Smile, Madam President!” says Onesmo, capturing the moment.

Share in the growth of one of our students and see them flourish. Sponsor an academic scholarship today.