GEMMA Rice of Armidale has made the dreams of countless African children come true over the past four years.
Along the way, she has even succeeded in realising a dream of her own, to build and run a school in east Africa.
Gemma left Australia in mid-May to run the school which was built through funds raised by a group she started and with the helping hand of Australians who were inspired by her dream to go to Africa.
The school, in northern Tanzania, was expected to take its first students a few weeks ago.
Gemma spent three years working and living in rural Uganda in the mid-1990s and on her return to Australia in 1997, at the age of 25, she decided she would like to help educate a few of the students she knew back in Africa.
With the help of a friend, an 88 year-old Franciscan priest, Gemma had soon instigated a small family/friends group in which each member agreed to give $5 a month to a special bank account.
Initially the call to extend the group was conducted through the parishes and a regular newsletter kept contributors informed of where the money was spent. They bought tyres for a mission truck, paid for some school fees and other minor projects.
Before long Gemma was being invited to address community groups and people started wanting to join the group effort. Suddenly there were hundreds of contributors and the group became a registered incorporated charity known as the East African Fund Inc.
By 1999 Gemma’s group had sent thousand of dollars to Africa, paying for countless infant, primary, secondary and tertiary educational fees, school text books, clothing for students and maintenance on school equipment.
Also in 1999, one of the families the group supports in Tanzania gave the East African Fund a block of land on which to build a school. Another account was opened and within the first six months about $50,000 of the $200,000 needed to build the school had been donated.
The school project also became a Rotary project and a number of Rotary teams journeyed to Africa to build the school.
The school will eventually teach students from kindergarten to Year 12 and the emphasis will be on English language and computer and sewing classes for all ages.
Gemma said the need to learn English was a major priority for the new school. ‘The district runs on tourism and a lot of business is also done in English.’
Supplies for the school have also been donated with several container loads sent in the last 18 months. The containers are packed by Rotary volunteers in Brisbane.
