What drives us to leave our legacy when we inherit a legacy we don't want? Leave an Insight episode and leave a legacy
Gemma Sisia believes in the direction of her life at the moment she watched television as a young teenager.
“It was 1985 and I was watching a live aid with Bob Geldof, who was raising money for the hunger in Africa.
In 53, Gemma realized her dream version, saving thousands of children in sub-Saharan Africa from poverty. She also made a life for herself in Tanzania after falling in love with a man she originally tried to avoid.
She believes in her strength, determination and know-how for her family, but her journey was something she asked her not to make.
Gemma grew up on a sheep and cattle farm about 50km north of Armidale in the NSW region. The only daughter of eight children, she says her siblings taught her “survival skills from birth.”
Her mother in Melbourne received lessons in music and public speaking as her children were deemed not to grow up like the “Country Bumpkins.”
Her father transformed from a lawyer into a sheep farmer, then returned again and opened a law firm at the age of 67. By the time he died five years later, he had three offices in three different towns.
Gemma believes in her strength and skills in the upbringing her parents have given her. Source: Supply
“I grew up on a farm and am far from town, so I never saw a merchant,” Gemma tells SBS Insight.
“We were forced to do everything ourselves, and I'm always thinking about my father. If he could start a whole new business at 67, we would all be doing something. can.”
Gemma says she lives remotely, and her family learns to do everything herself. Source: Supply
Gemma's dream of helping out in Africa was with her throughout high school. At a university in Melbourne, she met a nun who ran a school in Uganda and said she needed a mathematics and science teacher.
There she received her degree and qualified as a teacher and arrived in Uganda in 1994.
However, the AIDS crisis reached its peak and she quickly lost a student.
“Their father was dying while their uneducated mothers were unable to raise money for their tuition,” she says.
“I thought it would be great to build a high-quality private school that didn’t charge tuition, so if parents were struggling to die or pay, their kids wouldn’t have to leave. ”
Love changes everything
During her Easter holiday, Gemma traveled with friends to Serengeti, Tanzania, and enjoyed a holiday romance with “handsome” driver Richard on a safari tour.
However, she had come to Africa for work rather than love, so when Richard asked for her contact details, she gave him a fake.
A holiday to Tanzania in the 1980s changed the direction of Gemma's life. Source: Supply
“His letter was returned and he realized the address was dangerous, but he knew I lived in Masaka.
Undeterred Richard travels from Tanzania to Masaka, Uganda, finding a girl who collapsed three months ago and asks at the bus stop where the young white woman lives.
“The driver dropped him into the village. The woman there wasn't me, but she knew me,” Gemma said. “In the end, he followed me as I was sitting on the floor with some students. I saw this guy walking towards me. He was Tanzania It wasn't until he was nearby that he realized he was Richard.
“The girl worshiped him, so I thought, 'OK, we're going to start going outside.' ”
Over the next three years, Gemma and Richard spent as much time as possible traveling back and forth between Tanzania and Uganda.
However, her parents in Australia were not happy with the romance. When Gemma returned to Australia in 1997, when Richard visited and asked Gemma's dad if he could marry him, the answer was no.
“Mom and Dad were very conservative and wanted to marry a Catholic doctor within driving distance from the farm, not an uneducated Tanzanian safari driver.”
However, Gemma remained determined. Four years later, she flew to Tanzania, married Richard, and began raising money to open a free private school to educate the poor, with only one of her brothers present.
From “desperate” to hopeful
Among Catholics, St. Jude was the patron saint of hopeless incidents, and so was her school's “fit name,” Gemma says.
“I made a donation of just $10 from a friend in Armidale, and it felt quite hopeless.”
However, her stepfather gave two acres of land to Arusha, a town near Mount Mel hills near Mount Kilimanjaro, raising enough money to build classrooms and playgrounds. She opened the school within six months with only three children.
With many help, Gemma built the school's first classroom, opening within six months with three children. Source: Supply
“Growing up on a farm made me a jack of all trades. I had to deal with electricians, carpenters, builders, merchants. My Swahili language for the first five years was It was construction-related,” Gemma said.
It was a busy time in her private life. Gemma and Richard were welcoming their children.
As soon as Gemma and Rich got married, they welcomed their first child. Source: Supply
In 2025, St. Jude's school will have one primary and two secondary schools on three sites: approximately 330 staff and 1,800 elementary and middle schools. It also supports approximately 400 university students.
Last year, about 100 St. Jude graduates graduated from university.
St. Jude has a great academic record in Tanzania, but in Australia, $10 million continues to run every year to provide more than 90% of the donors.
A former student who graduated from university with Gemma. Source: Supply
Free, the school receives thousands of applications. To get a place, students must sit in a series of entrance exams, prove they are volunteering in the community, and come from poverty.
“I want them to motivate, have core values and deserve a scholarship,” Gemma says.
According to Statistica, as of 2022, almost 40% of Tanzania's population of 68 million lived under $3 per day.
And while AIDS is not a tragedy, it was thanks to modern medicine, Tanzania has a relatively high mortality rate compared to most countries.
According to the World Health Organization, the average life expectancy is 67 years (compared to 83 years in Australia), with respiratory infections, HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria among the leading causes of death.
“Around four children lose their parents at St. Jude per month, but they have a full scholarship so no one has to leave,” Gemma says.
“Follow your dreams”
Gemma's early students are now beginning to infiltrate the workforce and her own life.
Her phone comes from a chain of Tanzania phone shops owned by one of the former students. When her stepmother was attacked asthma, she was treated in the hospital by one of her former students.
Within a few years, she wants to see them appear as business leaders and CEOs of the country.
“I'm a practical person and I'm not very reflective, but when I come across students in the world, I get very emotional. Ah, that's what I do for me,” says Gemma.
She is currently working on an incubator program that provides grants to St. Jude students who create, cost and sell their own businesses.
“We have kids recycle trash to make fertilizer, fix old shoes, create apps, and more. We want to help them make an even greater impact.”
Gemma's dad couldn't see the school before he passed away, but his mother came several times and attended a rally that blew her away in 2008.
Although unknown to Gemma, students and parents were told to come and thank them for sacrificing their daughter and providing them with gifts.
“From that day on, Mom was totally school, Richard and family. She was raising money with me, standing behind the table and hustling for me.”
Gemma is forever grateful that her mother forced her to have her after school in Armidale.
“In my last year as mom, I thanked her for teaching her how to speak to us in public. Otherwise, I could raise funds for the school. It wouldn't have been there.
Gemma and Richard currently have a family of four children, each of whom are making their own ways in the world. Within them and her students, Gemma follows your instincts and effort to instill the importance of your dreams.
Gemma and Richard have four adult children. Source: Supply
“I tell them they can do whatever they want, but they have to prepare themselves to work really hard every day to overcome all the obstacles.
“But if you don't give up chasing your dreams, in the end you'll get there.”
And heading towards more stories Hosted by Kumi Taguchi. From gender and relationships to health, wealth and sadness insights, it offers a deeper life and first-person storyline of former guests on the acclaimed television show “Insight.”
Follow the insight , , or wherever you get your podcast.
