“I have just received the June report - we are all ecstatic! Not only are all the current students sponsored but we are now able to enroll another 150 students in 2010! Three months ago this was uncertain as we didn’t have the funds.” - Gemma Sisia, School of St. Jude.

The School of St. Jude is a sponsorship-supported English Medium School in Tanzania that primarily serves orphaned and vulnerable children from the lowest socio-economic backgrounds. The school blends the best of Western and Tanzanian instructional methods to instill critical thinking and high moral Christian values in students who will later become the leaders and builders of Tanzania.

The goal of the school is to be an exemplary, modern and self-sustainable institution that affects a paradigm shift on the educational system in Tanzania by enabling Tanzanians to run successful and moral schools, thereby alleviating poverty and breaking the cycle of dependency on external aid.

Gemma Sisia (founder of School of St. Jude) and Sarah Henry have just completed a whirlwind tour of Australia to promote their cause, raise awareness, thank current sponsors and donors of the school and to raise much needed funds to keep the school alive. To do this, they posted a volunteer project with goodcompany for some publicists to assist throughout the promotional tour of the school. Goodcompany volunteers Angela Bell and Fiona Latham stepped in to compile a database, send out a media release on behalf of the School of St. Jude and put any interested parties in contact with Gemma. The girls worked alongside each other, dividing the work into a state by state basis.

"The girls where great –we simply did not have the time to be establishing a media database and reply to the media release. Without there help we would not have had the media exposure that we did" says Sarah from the School of St. Jude.

As a result, the School has been inundated with requests, donations and sponsorhips. The School will now be able to enroll another 150 students for next after the huge success of this years tour. This was not looking like a possibility before the tour.

Both Angela and Fiona not only worked hard to make this possible for Gemma, but gained a lot out of the experience personally.

"We were successful in gaining a lot of positive media coverage for Gemma, particularly in local newspapers and on radio. here were also features in newspapers such as The Age and an episode on the ABC’s Australian Story. We found the role challenging, given that we were working remotely and trying to work in our lunch breaks and after hours, but we were also rewarded when we were successful in attaining media coverage for Gemma and the school".

Read more about how the School of St. Jude is helping children in Tanzania via some truly inspirational programs, here in Gemma's latest newsletter: http://www.schoolofstjude.co.tz/Portals/stjude/newsletters/2010-Term3-Newsletter.pdf , or at the School of St. Jude website: http://www.schoolofstjude.co.tz/