Since the charter of our club, we have supported The School of St Jude and from that time to the present we have sponsored a student (Christerbel) who has progressed from 1st grade and is now in high school.
Christerbel Eliakimo, pictured here with a classmate on a recent school field trip to Kilimanjaro International Airport (KIA), as part of a science stream they have been studying.
The School of St Jude is a charity-funded school located in the city of Arusha, in the northern Arusha Region of Tanzania.
The school, located across three campuses, provides free primary and secondary education to the poorest and brightest children of the Arusha Region. It also provides boarding for over 1000 students and employs over 270 local Tanzanian staff members.
The school was founded in 2002 by Australian Gemma Sisia, who dreamed of helping end poverty in Africa.
She proved to be a talented fundraiser by engaging people and organisations such as Rotary.
She named the school after St Jude, the patron saint of hopeless causes.
'My first donation was $10, and I had no building experience before moving to Africa, so the likelihood of the school actually getting off the ground was pretty hopeless!
Anyway, I believed that with hard work, passion and prayer you can get through anything. I still believe that today.'
The school provides a free and high-quality education to over 1,800 girls and boys from the poorest families in the area.
It is 100% charity funded and receives no government assistance from Tanzania or Australia.
90% of the school's funding is from regular Australian families who have signed up to sponsor a child or donate.