A Visit to The School of St Jude

In December of last year, along with 29 other young Australians, I ventured across the globe to Tanzania, home to the School of St Jude. Some may have seen this much talked of school on Australian Story. It was founded by Jemma Sissia, a young woman from a sheep farm in northern New South Wales, for the purpose of educating only the brightest, but poorest children from all over Tanzania.The school is remarkable in its own right, and it is run totally on donations and sponsors from around the world, receiving absolutely no government funding.

 

The School of St Jude's Progress To Date

 There are currently three campuses in separate locations around Arusha, a town near Mt Kiliminjaro, the roof of Africa. The rigorous process of selection aims to accept only the poorest, yet most intelligent students. There is a whole list of criteria they must fulfil with regards to socioeconomic standards (or lack thereof). Their houses (if existent) must have dirt floors, no electricity and no running water.

The Primary School Playground

Primary School yard

If we had only visited the school of St Jude I would have no concept of the astounding relative difference between this school and other schools in Tanzania. After our stay at St Jude’s we continued on to Moshi, a township at the foot of Mount Kiliminjaro the roof of Africa (my relationship with this mountain will be explored in another blog post). Here in Moshi, we were divided between 3 schools, for the purpose of teaching the children and organising the only interschool sports carnival that exists in Tanzania. While at St Jude’s, school begins and ends at the same time each day, roles are marked and teachers are present. However at these independent schools, no time defines the beginning or end of the day, nor break times, students come when they come - not regularly, and occasionally the teachers simply don’t turn up. The startling difference between these schools and St Jude’s was inescapable. While the school oval at Kallileni, (the school I was teaching at) resembled a dusty plain, St Jude’s was full of grassy fields and colourful playground equipment. Though the classroom interiors were a lot simpler to those found in Australia, it was easy to tell the school was a supportive, and nurturing learning environment. Just speaking to the children you learned of their high aspirations (most of them want to be doctors, lawyers, engineers), and witnessed such passion, brought into existence through education. I think the fact that the School of St Jude exercises standards and expectations of all parties associated with it, plays a large part in its success.

Playing with the Children

Before school

The majority of our time at St Jude’s was spent talking with the children and observing the functioning of the school. Despite being run by an Australian, a truly beautiful part of the school is that it preserves the African culture while educating students at the same time.  We had the opportunity to learn African dance, taught by the school dance instructor, and we also were part of the audience on Parent Day at the upper primary school, a day when all the parents come to the school and the children give them a show of African dance and song. We were given a tour of the Ylead boarding house at the primary school, which our fundraising money had been contributed to.

At the Parents' Day Ceremony

After the parents' day ceremony, we were given a tour of the surrounding villages by some of the children. We were shown the kinds of places in which they live. As we walked through the muddy, dirt back streets, which were definitely not wide enough for any cars, I talked with the school captain of the upper primary. At once, I knew he must be from a Massai Tribe. The Massai rule stands that nothing but the best is good enough. Massai warriors fight to the death because death is a happier alternative to being second best. Although ‘dying’ is rather dramatic for a school situation, this boy told me that he was only second in maths. After my own enthusiastic exclamations, he sadly said his parents were very disappointed. Such is the strict nature of the Massai culture. 

While in Arusha, we were also fortunate enough to visit a Massai village. After an hour's bus trip through a sparse, roadless desert landscape dotted with clusters of tiny mud huts, and children chasing the bus from all directions, we arrived at the village. All the men from the village were away at their Initiation-into-Adulthood ceremony, so only the women were there. We presented our gifts - a goat and a bag of grain, then were given a tribal thank-you dance. We were shown inside a hut, and Felix, from the school of St Jude (as seen in the video), who is part of a Massai tribe, told us about the culture and practices. It was fascinating to realize that people live so traditionally and isolated from the rest of the world. It is absolutely impossible to compare my own life to that of someone living in a Massai village. For more information on the Massai culture, beliefs and practices, visit http://www.maasai-association.org/welcome.html 

Children running to catch a glimpse of our bus

The children ran from the small villages we passed to wave at our bus

The Village

It is truly inspirational to see such success from donations and sponsorship alone. The School of St Jude will not only kick start the lives of each student in attendance, but it is clear there is a much wider circle of influence, both educationally and economically. With further support, it will only continue to expand, rendering a very bright future for its students and their families. As Gemma explained to us, she is determined that they should all attend university in Tanzania or Kenya, because that way, they will continue the advancement of education and development within their own country.