TANZANIAN SCHOOL’S APPEAL TO THE UAE
▶ St Jude provides free education to 1,800 needy pupils – would you like to sponsor one of them?
An African school offering free education to more than 1,800 underprivileged pupils has issued a sponsorship plea to the UAE to ensure 27 youngsters are given the chance of a brighter future.
The School of St Jude in Tanzania offers support to bright pupils who would otherwise not be able to afford high-quality education.
It was set up by Australian humanitarian Gemma Sisia, who went to Africa for volunteer work for a year in 1993, at the age of 22.
Ms Sisia, who grew up with seven brothers on a sheep farm, started the School of St Jude in 2002 with a class of three children. Today, it has more than 1,800 pupils.
“My mother bought one dress every decade because school fees were the priority,” she said. “After finishing university, I wanted to work in Africa to give back because I had a blessed childhood.”
In Africa, she was working at a private school for the children of wealthy parents.
“I thought to myself, ‘why are private schools all over the world so expensive?’” Ms Sisia said. “I told my family that I was going to build a free private school in Africa. I started with nothing, now we have about 1,800 pupils all enjoying a free education.”
The school has three branches in the East African country and relies on global goodwill to fund its endeavours, much of that comes from the UAE.
This year’s intake includes 33 Muslim pupils, 27 of whom are unsponsored. The school is calling for sponsors in the UAE to enable the 14 girls and 13 boys to continue their education.
The school already has a few sponsors from Dubai and is hoping that the country’s generosity will spread a little farther. It will be opening a girl’s secondary school next year, which will provide for 600 pupils.
“We got a visitor and sponsor who was from Dubai and they asked me to stop in Dubai and make a few presentations,” Ms Sisia said. “We found that some of the donors in the UAE went back home and the word spread.
“For the new girl’s school, we are hoping to get sponsors from the UAE. It’s very kind of them to sacrifice a little bit of what they have for people.”
To be enrolled, pupils must be bright but under a certain poverty level.
“If your family has electricity or have in-house plumbing or more than two rooms in your home, you are too wealthy to attend school here,” she said. “We are looking for families living in mud houses.”
The school sends teams to investigate the children’s homes to ensure they fall below the poverty line.
Pupils start school aged about 7 and graduate when they are 20. After leaving school, they teach at government schools for a year then attend university.
“The biggest challenge is finding someone willing to sponsor a child,” Ms Sasia said.
Bonds develop between the sponsors and the children and at a recent graduation, many of the sponsors flew to Tanzania to see their sponsored child graduate.
Bernadette King-Turner, founding partner of Yellow Brick Road Nursery in Dubai, has sponsored Glory Joachim since she first started at the School of St Jude at the age of 6 in 2007. They have also paid for a teacher’s salary, a school bus and many mosquito nets.
“I was shopping with my mother in a Brisbane Mall where we visited three bookshops, and in each bookshop we noticed the School of St Jude book,” Ms King-Turner said.
“So I took the message, bought Gemma Sisia’s book and within the next few hours I contacted the school and began our very special and loving School of St Jude journey.
“I arranged for my two nursery managers, Ms Elizabeth and Ms Sharon, to visit the school during the summer of 2008 so they could meet with Glory, her family and the school faculty.
“I plan to travel to Arusha, Tanzania, in June 2019 to attend Glory’s graduation ceremony. We will always look out for Glory and be with her throughout her future.”
There are three types of sponsorship and the amount remains the same across the years.
With shared sponsorship, three people pitch in for the expenses of a child, which comes to about Dh160 a month; in co-sponsorship, two people each pay about Dh330 a month; and a full sponsorship costs about Dh650 a month. Sponsors have to make a commitment of three years.
The sponsorship covers the pupil’s educational and boarding expenses including learning resources and classroom essentials, school uniforms, daily meals and clean water.
People can also help by spreading the word on social media and by visiting the school, Ms Sisia said.
If you want to support the School of St Jude by providing an academic scholarship for a pupil, visit schoolofstjude.org.
We are hoping to get sponsors from the UAE. It’s very kind of them to sacrifice a little of what they have GEMMA SISIA Founder, the School of St Jude