'We call this heaven': Gemma Sisia's Tanzanian story

By Ben Cheshire
Updated December 1 2015 - 4:24pm, first published 4:23pm

Gemma Sisia left Australia for Africa intending to be a nun. Instead, she fell in love, then discovered a new purpose: educating some of the poorest children in Tanzania.

Gemma Sisia, founder of the School of St Jude, with students in Arusha, Tanzania.
Gemma Sisia, founder of the School of St Jude, with students in Arusha, Tanzania.

It's dress rehearsal for the inaugural graduation ceremony at the School of St Jude in Arusha, Tanzania, and the formidable Gemma Sisia is trying to convince me she has pulled back from supervising every detail at the school she founded 13 years ago. But with five days to go before the big event, it doesn't look that way. "I don't want to see any wiggly lines like snakes," she instructs the 61 students who are making an untidy approach to the stage and singing too softly for Sisia's liking. "Do you not know the Tanzania national anthem? Prove it to me!" They crank up the volume. "Beautiful. Excellent. Perfect!"

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