The value of a quality education has not been lost on St Jude's graduate Dorice, who has been putting hers to good use in her current role as a biology teacher.
The 2015 graduate remembers spending her primary school years crammed five-to-a-desk in a class of more than 100, fighting through hunger while trying to learn.
鈥淲hen I was in a government school it was hard. Sometimes the teacher was at class; sometimes she wasn鈥檛,鈥� Dorice said.
鈥淲e spent from morning until night without any food and we didn鈥檛 have any books.鈥�
Driven by her dream of becoming a doctor, Dorice finished in the top 10% of her primary school and earned a scholarship at St Jude鈥檚, where she was given everything needed to excel in her studies.
鈥淚f I wasn鈥檛 at St Jude鈥檚 I don鈥檛 think I would have finished Form 6 (Grade 12) because the conditions (at government schools) are so tough, without teachers, without books,鈥� Dorice said.
鈥淢y parents couldn鈥檛 afford to send me to a private school.
鈥淏ecause I was at St Jude鈥檚 I passed Form 4 (Grade 10) very well and Form 6 very well.鈥�
Finishing high school is a major achievement in Tanzania. Of the 1.63 million students in Tanzanian that enrolled in their first year of school in 2002 like Dorice, less than 39,000 of them graduated from Form 6 this year. That is just 2.4%.
Next year Dorice hopes to study medicine, a profession desperately needed in a country that has one of the worst doctor shortages in the world (1 physician per 100,000 people).
鈥淗ere in Tanzania there are very few doctors,鈥� she said. 鈥淚 want to be a gynecologist because there are very few and there are lots of women鈥檚 diseases that are not addressed.鈥�
Before Dorice embarks on her tertiary education she is completing her Community Service Year at the high school just around the corner from her childhood home.
Returning to a government school has made her even more aware of the need for a quality education like the one she received at St Jude鈥檚.
鈥淲hen I was in Form 1 (at St Jude鈥檚) we were only 27 students (in a class) but (at the government school) there are 57,鈥� Dorice said.
鈥淭hey have no teachers. I remember the first day I came they had no biology teacher here. From January to July the Form 1s had no biology teacher.
鈥淚 started an introduction to biology.
鈥淭hey really loved me because I was telling them what to do, advising them how to study, how to revise. I鈥檓 using what I learnt at St Jude鈥檚 to help them.鈥�
Dorice has been selected as the first ever St Jude鈥檚 graduate to tour Australia with Gemma next March and April.聽Contact our organiser聽to book her for any conferences or major events.
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