Rotary Club of Blacktown City Celebrates International Women’s Day with Gemma Sisia of the School of St Jude in Arusha Tanzania

On Tuesday, 4 March 2025, Rotary Club of Blacktown City celebrates International Women’s Day with inspirational guest speaker Gemma Sisia!

Save the date and join the Rotary Club of Blacktown City to listen to our guest speaker Gemma Sisia, be inspired and find out how she founded The School of St Jude in Tanzania based on the belief that education should be a right, not a privilege.

At 22 years old Gemma Sisia travelled to Uganda to volunteer as a teacher, where she taught girls science and sewing. This experience led to a fervent belief that a free, high-quality education should be the right of all children in the world and that education is the strongest weapon in the fight against poverty, corruption and political instability.

Upon returning to her native Australia, Gemma fundraised to help underprivileged children in East Africa complete their schooling. She would raise enough money to start an official fund to invest in the education of East Africa’s poorest children. Along with the gift of a small plot of land in Arusha, Tanzania, Gemma began to build The School of St Jude with the help of friends, family and Rotary groups.

Since its inception in 2002, The School of St Jude has been providing a free, quality education to bright, poor Tanzanian students with a drive to educate and nurture the next generation of moral and intellectual leaders. St Jude’s currently educates 1,800 students from Standard 1 to Form 6 across three schools. The addition of St Jude’s Girls’ Secondary School in January 2020 ensures that we have an even greater impact in fighting poverty through education, with more girls having access to a free, quality education.

Source: https://www.schoolofstjude.org/