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.
It was founded by Australian Gemma Sisia in 2002, based on the belief that education is the best way to fight poverty
The mission of The School of St Jude is to educate disadvantaged, bright students from the Arusha District to become moral and intellectual leaders in their country and for St Jude’s to thereby demonstrate educational leadership in Tanzania.
Poverty in Tanzania is endemic. Ranked 204 out of 230 nations in the world for GDP per capita, as a nation Tanzania is unable to provide its children with a quality education. The government school system is overstretched, under-resourced, and produces poor educational outcomes for Tanzanian society.
St Jude’s provides a free, high-quality education to children who — due to poverty and social pressures — would otherwise be unlikely to complete their schooling. Drawn from families who often live on less than $1.25 per day, the pupils of St Jude’s are shining examples of what students can achieve when they are given the opportunity to receive a quality education.
Since 2002 we have added 150 students to the school each year and in 2015 the first senior class from The School of St Jude will graduate from Form 6. We are working towards a model that supports our students through tertiary education and completing the mission to create the next generation of Tanzanian leaders.
