During the month of March, Gemma Sisia and St Jude’s graduate Winrose Andason Mollel embarked on a journey around Australia to meet and update their supporters, whilst spreading the inspirational story of The School of St Jude’s in Tanzania.
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Gemma is an accomplished speaker with 14 years’ experience sharing the inspirational St Jude’s story around the world, from the International Rotary Convention to the TEDx stage.
Her story has twice featured on The ABC Australian Story. She has inspired people both young and old with her unique and innovative approach to fighting poverty through education.
Today, she continues to change the lives of approximately 1800 students and more than 280 Tanzanian staff members and their families.
The School of Jude is supported by the local Rotary Clubs through donations, either specifically for a student or for the running of the school in general. Over 90 per cent of the funds come from Australia, mainly from Rotary Clubs.
It is a very transparent model where all funds are clearly accounted for with donors receiving regular updates on how the funds have been used or a report from the individual student sharing his/her progress and achievements.
On Wednesday, March 29, more than 100 Rotarians, partners and friends of the Rotary Clubs of the Illawarra hosted Gemma and Winrose at Centro CBD in Wollongong, to receive an update on the current achievements of the school.
Winrose is one of the students whose life changed forever when she received a St Jude’s scholarship. After excelling at one of Tanzania’s severely under-resourced government schools, Winrose joined St Jude’s and went on to graduate with the highest possible result.
She is currently volunteering in the Marketing Team as part of the Community Service Program and in the future hopes to become an engineer.
In 2015, local identity Brendan Birmingham of the RC of West Wollongong, visited the school to meet the staff and students, to experience first-hand the range of teaching and learning programs provided, whilst gaining a greater understanding of the purpose and achievements of the St Jude.
“Gemma’s passion and vision are a real inspiration to see and experience,” he said. “On the day I attended, which is a typical day at St Jude’s, there was 100% attendance.”
For more information on this story, visit website http://westwollongongrotary.org.au/ or phone Brendan on 0402 062 606
