The School That Hope Built

An extraordinary account of Gemma Sisia's twenty years as the founder of St Jude's, a school that is changing the lives of some of the poorest children in Tanzania.


From a country town in Australia to a small village in Tanzania, Gemma Sisia has built a truly remarkable legacy.


In 2002, Gemma founded The School of St Jude in her husband's home country of Tanzania, with the goal of empowering local Tanzanians to build a school community unlike any other.

 

From humble beginnings, with just three students and one volunteer teacher, St Jude's now provides free education to over 1,800 Tanzanian school students and supplies more than 10,000 government school students with volunteer teachers each year. St Jude's also supports its alumni to become the doctors, engineers, tradespeople, entrepreneurs and teachers of the next generation.


Sharing the incredible twenty-year journey from an Australian girl's simple vision to an educational powerhouse with 350 local staff, The School That Hope Built reveals how St Jude's is breaking the cycle of intergenerational poverty one student at a time.