Jude is a sponsor supported, private school providing free education for over 1,8. Northern Tanzania. A moment with Megan Washington.

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Saint Pierre and Miquelon Press, Media, TV, Radio, Newspapers, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Press, Media, TV, Radio, Newspapers, Samoa Press, Media, TV, Radio. Gemma Sisia left Australia for Africa intending to be a nun. Instead, she fell in love, then discovered a new purpose: educating some of the poorest children in.

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Founded by Australian Gemma Sisia, The School of St. Jude is a sponsor supported, private school providing free education for over 1,8. Northern Tanzania. It's dress rehearsal for the inaugural graduation ceremony at the School of St Jude in Arusha, Tanzania, and the formidable Gemma Sisia is trying to convince me she has pulled back from supervising every detail at the school she founded 1. But with five days to go before the big event, it doesn't look that way.

Prove it to me! Why are there rubbish bin holders with no rubbish bins in them? Nobody should be talking, but everyone must have a big smile. Do that again! Be respectful! One Aussie visitor who has been watching her for a week sighs and mutters to himself, .

For the country girl who left Australia with the idea of becoming a nun or missionary, the graduation ceremony is the realisation of a dream to provide free, quality education to some of the smartest, but poorest kids in Tanzania. Opening with just three students in 2. School of St Jude has grown to almost 2. Africa. Thirty- one – just over half – of the graduating class achieved distinctions in the recent exams. Remarkably, the whole enterprise has been achieved with no assistance from the Tanzanian or Australian governments. Ninety per cent of the school's funding comes from regular Australian families who signed up to sponsor a child, or to donate in other ways. A large proportion of those families pledged their support after watching an ABC Australian Story program on Gemma Sisia that aired in 2.

As the producer of that episode, I've been invited back today as a special guest. Every one of the 6. Australia – have vowed to continue their financial support. One of them is Sharon Smith, 6.

Brisbane businesswoman now on her second visit. After watching the program and hearing Sisia speak at a fundraiser in Brisbane, she offered to sponsor ten St Jude students.

I was making good money, I could afford it. However, there are still some funding issues at the school. Around 1. 50 of the students currently do not have a sponsor, and 1. As the only girl in a family of eight children, she quickly learnt to compete with her brothers when it came to mustering sheep and riding horses.

According to her mother, Sue Rice, she became fearless and fiercely determined. They converted their dining room into a prayer room, complete with crucifix, candles and statues of Jesus. Out in the paddocks, among the sheep, motorbikes and cattle dogs, they constructed their own Stations of the Cross, depicting scenes from the crucifixion of Christ. It was instilled in the children that there was more to life than just having fun. She discussed the idea with her school principal, who thought she was perhaps .

But the idea of becoming a nun or missionary went astray just a few months after her arrival when she took a safari on the Serengeti Plains in Tanzania. Her driver was one Richard Sisia. The attraction was mutual.

She'd given Richard a deliberately vague address when she left him but, three months later, he embarked on an 1. Ugandan town of Masaka. After three days spent asking around for the mzungu (white) woman, he found her at the convent school. I spent three more days with her and we talked about being together for life.

Gemma's notion of becoming a nun dissolved. Explaining to her family that she was going to marry a Tanzanian and live her life in Africa wasn't so easy. They pictured her carrying water on her head and living in a mud hut. Also, for Sue Rice, the idea of her being with a local man was confronting. On visits home to Australia, she spoke at Rotary clubs and churches about her experiences, with the result that more and more people joined the sponsorship scheme. She began sending money to other Ugandan schools, but was frustrated to learn that some of it was going missing.

An idea started to take shape in her head: why not start her own school and so be sure the money was going where it was needed? The problem was solved when Richard's father, Daniel – a senior Masai man who'd been educated by missionaries and become a vet – offered to donate a small block of land. Though Westernised and middle class, he worked with the Masai people in Tanzania's Ngorongoro Conservation Area. Richard and Gemma were married in a Masai- Catholic ceremony at the school in 2.

School of St Jude opened its doors in January, 2. It was with a wry sense of humour that Gemma chose the name St Jude: .

A girl from Guyra trying to build a school in Africa? That's a serious hopeless case! Within three years it had 5.

It employed 1. 00 local staff, half of them teachers, and a team of builders who were constantly adding extra classrooms. A $1. 5 million stroke of luck arrived in 2. American philanthropists Gordon and Helen Smith visited Tanzania for a safari and decided to give their support to a local school. When they got to St Jude, they knew they'd found the one they were looking for. The Smiths offered to build a second St Jude campus in Arusha, doubling the school's size.

Every Saturday from August to December, hundreds of children line up at the school gates to compete for one of the 1. To gain admission, there are just two criteria: the children must be bright and they must be poor. And while it is a Christian- based school, 2. Muslim and numerous tribes are represented.

Students sit exams five times a year and those who do not achieve grades of at least 7. St Jude. It's a harsh policy, but one that's enforced not by Sisia but by the parent committee. When this happens, she doesn't hesitate to send them home. I would say there is an issue with one in four volunteers. The Sisias' two oldest children, Nathaniel, 1. Jacob, 1. 2, go to boarding school in South Africa (they don't qualify for St Jude), leaving Isabella, 7, and Louisa, 3, at home. Gemma has also helped Richard relaunch his business, which offers 4.

WD trips through Tanzania, Rwanda and Kenya. The school's parent board asked her to come back because families were worried that without her the school could collapse. Standards were slipping, according to Fausta Alfayo, chairperson of the parent committee.

The students excitedly adjust their academic robes and hats, debating in rapid- fire Swahili whether the hats' tassel should hang to the left or right. Her voice cracking with emotion, Sisia welcomes Tanzania's deputy minister of education, parents, visitors – including her mother – and the students. To everyone here today, we promise that we are going to leave a remarkable footprint on the future. Judica Amon, 2. 0, wants to study business. In offering her this education, Sisia has, she believes, saved her and other girls from early marriages and mundane lives: . It has changed our lives and opened up an opportunity for a great future.

Where kids formerly had no better prospects than minding cows, children are receiving a life- changing education. Sue Rice has no more doubts about her daughter's unexpected path in life, even as she recognises that Gemma is unlikely ever to return to Australia to live.