Arusha school win hearts of Middle East lion clubs

Arusha. The Lions Club in the Middle East have pledged to support the School of St. Jude, an Arusha-based education centre, build a new girls secondary school for 600 students.

This was announced recently after the 16 year old school participated in the Lions Clubs International Forum in Dubai where a special project 'Fighting Poverty through Education' was launched.

During the event, the school clearly stated its intention of providing women and girls with equal access to education as per the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal number five.

Currently the co-educational school, which runs primary and secondary wings, has a total of 1,800 pupils,1,400 of whom are boarders in its three campuses in and around Arusha.

The proposed all girls school hopes to admit 600 girls, according to Ms Leoie, Trubshoe, the school official in charge of communication and media matters.

'The Lions clubs will actively support our drive to build a new girls secondary school for 600 students, she said, adding that this would ensure opening up more chances for those from the poor families.

"We love to empower our female students. We provide an equal opportunity for all students regardless of religion, tribe or gender", she said told The Citizen.

About 60 per cent of all students at the education institution established by Ms Gemma Sisia, an Australian national in 2002, are girls.

The school's spokesperson could not reveal the estimated cost of the new campus for the girl students. It offers free education targeting the young learners from the poor families.

It is estimated that about 90 per cent of funds used for running the education centre, which employs 300 staff members, each year is raised in Australia and other countries abroad.

The St Jude School started with a campus at Moshono, followed later by a much larger and famous campus at Usa River (near the Ngurdoto Mountain Lodge) while the third one was set up at Moivaro.