Gift of greatness

Giving makes us great.
It makes us whole.
It cheers us and lifts our spirits.
As good for the giver as the receiver.

So those Rotary folks who spent three weeks in Tanzania and worked on teacher desks at the School of St Jude are great people!

RAWCS team working on desks.

A group of 30 Rotarians from different parts of Australia visited the School recently and worked on desks for the new school campus.

The desks look great!, don't they? And the Rotarians look great too. Nothing like some humble t-shirts to create a group. Do you recognise some faces here?


They deserve a drink!

Relaxing at the local hangout – the Waterhole

Check out the sponsorship packages at the school. You can donate towards all kinds of things – from mosquito nets to plumbing to teachers and kids.

Giving will make you great. And you'll transform the lives of bright kids from the poorest families.


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Rotary climbs Mt Kilimanjaro

On the 28/08/07 a group of Australian Rotarians and Friends climbed Mount Kilimanjaro, Tanzania in Africa. This was the culmination of months of planning. The climbers raised money for three projects in Africa – including the School of St Jude. The School plans to buy two diesel generators for the Usa River campus that is due to open in a few months.

After the climb, they visited the School, and you can check out details of their visit here.

Everyone who visits the School is impressed. Impressed by the way it is growing, by how well it is run, and most of all by the behaviour and attitude of the students.

Assembly – the best behaved children in the world! What a welcome we received.

If you want to make a difference in the world, the School of St Jude is a great place to do it!

A ship that is sailing well

"Everyone loves to be on a ship that is sailing well," says Gemma Sisia, and it is so true! Who wants to be on a rickety leaky boat with a clueless captain?

Gemma is grateful for all the people who are coming onboard the good ship St Jude, and she is especially grateful to those people who helped build the ship, right back at the beginning.

I'll never forget that my local Rotary Club gave it support when the probability of it failing was quite high.

Gemma is featured in the latest issue of Rotary Down Under, June 2007.

Gemma Sisia

In the article, she spells out the full extent of the current building program on two campuses. In the next six months she is building 26 classrooms, two food halls, boarding accommodation for 800 children, three staff rooms, four computer labs, toilets, a water tower and water tanks. All up, it is millions of dollars of investment. She has $60,000 in the bank – so money is needed!

The school sponsorship program attracts lots of people who want to sponsor a child, but the building works for a new high school to serve the kids in future years needs people who are prepared to pay for 'invisible' things like computer cable, cement, steel and timber.

Gemma says,

I've never had to turn a sponsorship away, but it is getting close.

I have a photo I keep in my wallet of a parent who has just seen her child in uniform for the first time. When times are getting really bad, I pull that out and it puts things in perspective.

Wearing the St Jude's uniform has a big reputation in our area now. It basically says you're going to have a good life. Your life is going to be different.

If you are able to help with a little, or a lot!, check out the Current Campaign page on the School of St Jude website. Why not invite some friends to afternoon tea and invite them to contribute $10 each?

Everyone wants to see this ship make a safe trip across difficult waters. The destination is a land of hope for hundreds of bright children.

What do you think? Leave a comment and share your thoughts.

Famous for their jellybean buses

In Arusha most buses are banged up old rattle-traps. That makes the colourful buses of the School of St Jude really stand out – even though they are just old rattle-traps in disguise. Anthea, an Arusha local, notes –

The pupils of St Jude’s come from all over Arusha in buses. My children and I have counted 12 at a time, all marked with the school’s familiar logo, all a different colour – orange, red, green, pink – so that it looks as if somebody’s emptying a packet of jelly beans down the road.

In the February newsletter, the School announced that they have been able to buy two more buses thanks to a Rotary Matching Grant initiated in 2005 by 11 Rotary Clubs in Australia, Italy, Tanzania and USA. How is that for global action!

The grant was valued at $US25,000. This allowed the School to buy two second-hand buses, weld them back together, and fit them out with some new parts, brand new tyres and a lot of love.

Before the 'extreme make-over'

After welding them all back together, they needed a new paint job and so for an extra few hundred dollars they were painted purple and pink and had the Rotary symbol painted onto the driver’s door of both vehicles. The kids and staff LOVE them and already the buses are getting a good workout with each vehicle bringing over 60 students and staff to and from school each day.

Here are the drivers George and Henry - proudly standing near their new buses.


And here are the treasurer of the Rotary Club of Mt Meru, Bhavesh Gohil and immediate past president Ashik Nanabhai with the bus their club helped to fund.


These jelly bean buses provide more than reliable transport. They communicate the cheerful optimism of the School as it educates the future community leaders of Tanzania.

Make your contribution to the School through the ChipIn tool at the top of the page, or go to the School website to sponsor a bus and help cover ongoing maintenance and running costs.

As it is Easter, the School is on vacation. Well, except for the Standard 4 classes who will sit the national exam at the end of the year. They work through the holidays, studying hard so they can do well in the exams. In term time, these Standard 4 classes work six days a week, but during vacation time, they get Saturdays off!




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Join a Working Team at the school in August!

In August a working team will be travelling from Australia to help the school build furniture for the new boarding school and the secondary campus at Usa River.

The team leaves Australia on 18th August and will fly back on 11th September. They will be spending around two weeks working at the school, going on a safari for 5 days and heading to Zanzibar for a few days rest.

The team still has a few spaces, so if you would like to be part of a really enriching and rewarding experience, now is your chance. You can look here to see what previous working teams have achieved at the School.

Gemma with some St Jude's students

Don't worry, you don't need to be a carpenter or even a Rotarian to join - just hardworking, willing and enthusiastic!

To find out more, contact Kelli Williams on kelliraew@gmail.com

What a GREAT way to find out more about a new country and new culture! You can get a local perspective on the School of St Jude by checking out Anthea's blog. She was born in Africa and lives outside Arusha with her farmer-husband and three teenagers. She says:

Ask any child in the West what they want and they’ll be hard pressed to decide between latest iPod or designer trainers. Ask an African child and they’ll tell you that more than anything in the whole wide world – they want to go to school.

In one of the poorest countries of the world, Tanzania, this is only possible through the help of people like you. Make it happen!