Updated 11/10/2011
Frequently Asked Questions (Boarding Room Sponsorship)
For our boarding students, your sponsorship means the world; warm comfortable beds, protective mosquito
nets, nutritious breakfasts and dinners each day, lessons each evening and a nurturing and educationally
conducive environment. Your support gives our students the freedom to achieve their very best!
Q1: Will the students in my boarding room stay together during their whole time at St Jude’s?
The students in your boarding room will change rooms and often campus at the beginning of each school
year. At the beginning of each year, we will let you know the names of the new students in your room.
Q2: How many boarding schools do you have?
We have two boarding schools at St Jude’s. One is situated within the grounds of our Usa River Campus.
The second one is situated at the Moivaro Campus, which is a 10-minute walk from our Moshono Primary
Campus.
At each campus the Boys’ and Girls’ dorms are separated by a dining hall. Boys and girls share meals
together in the dining hall, but other activities are restricted to the respective Boys and Girls areas.
Q3. Can you please explain the names given to the boarding houses?
Across both campuses, each boarding floor has a room for the floor’s matron/patron. Each floor has four
rooms for the students: A, B, C & D. There are 5-10 students in each room, who sleep on bunks.
At Usa River, the Boys’ floors are named after a Tanzanian National Park, while the Girls’ floors are named
after African Animals. At Moivaro Campus, the Boys’ floors are named after famous African male
personalities, while the Girls’ floors are named after famous African female personalities.
PO Box 11875, Arusha, Tanzania, East Africa
Ph: +255 686 049 142 or +255 755 106 058
www.schoolofstjude.co.tz EMAIL: info@schoolofstjude.co.tz
Q4: Can you please explain the classes and semesters at St Jude’s?
The Tanzanian school year is from January to December. We have three terms a year, with 12 weeks in
each term. Our students get a week’s mid-term break after the first 6 weeks of each term.
Lower Primary School Upper Primary School Secondary School
(located at Moshono) (located at Moshono) (located at Usa River)
Prep Grade 4 Form 1
Std 1 Grade 5 Form 2
Std 2 Grade 6 Form 3
Std 3 Form 4 (offered from 2012 onwards) O-levels
Form 5 (offered from 2013 onwards)
Std is the abbreviation for Form 6 (offered from 2014 onwards) A-levels
“Standard”, which is similar to
“year”, “grade”, “level”, etc…
Day students only Students board during the Students board on weekdays and weekends.
week. Students commence Students return home for the weekend during
boarding on Sunday evening mid-term and term break.
and return home on Friday
afternoons.
Q5: May I send a present to the students in my Boarding Room?
You are not expected to, but you can. We’d appreciate if any gifts sent are small, simple, easily shared
among all 8 students and also appropriate for Tanzania. To avoid any envy among boarders, the
Boarding School Leaders have strict guidelines about what can and cannot be taken into boarding. For
this reason please send a group gift that can be shared. Any individual gifts will be given to the
respective students, however they are not allowed them in their room and are only given them to take
home on weekends.
Since there will be new boarding students in your room each January, any gifts and letters that are
received at St Jude’s during December (after school is closed) will be given to the new group of students
occupying your room the following school year. Therefore we ask that you address all correspondence
to “Dear Students of (Name of your Boarding Room)”, rather than the individual students’ names.
There is a notice board on each Boarding Room floor where students can pin up photos and letters from
their sponsors for all to enjoy.
The address:
Please send it to the following address by normal airmail not by sea mail:
The School of St Jude
(Name of your Boarding Room and Campus)
PO Box 11875
Arusha
Tanzania
East Africa
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To make sure parcels arrive and incur no expenses for the school:
Please do NOT register or insure any mail as it costs the school at least US$25 in taxes at our end.
Mark all parcels as being “second-hand goods” or “personal gifts”.
Ensure the description of goods written on the parcel matches the actual items inside as customs and
postal staff frequently inspect contents of parcels.
Please label all parcels clearly with the first and last name of the student and your full name.
Please put the value of the package at no more than US$10 (the lower the better).
Ensure that your parcel is LESS THAN 2KG. We have been advised that parcels less than 2KG are
technically tax-free regardless of content, but this is not guaranteed by all postal workers.
Tax-free items. We have been advised that the following items are tax-free, but this is not guaranteed.
Books
Personal goods
Anything that is not new. Used goods, used clothes, etc…(please remove labels and packaging
from all items before sending them)
Keep in mind that parcels sent by airmail can take up to four months to get here (sea mail is even longer
– often 12+ months!), so don’t worry if it takes a while for us to let you know the parcel has arrived. We
will always let you know by email when the parcel has been given to your student.
Q6: What can I send?
According to our policy the pupils are not allowed to ask for things. Therefore, please help us by not
asking them what they would like to have. Also, not all children receive gifts from their sponsors. We
ask you for your understanding, and if you choose to send a gift, we request any packages to contain a
few small things only, and items that can be shared.
Here are some ideas we recommend: quality blue or black pens; quality colouring pencils or crayons (eg
Crayola, Staedtler or Faber-Castell); erasers; rulers; sharpeners; pencil-cases; stickers. Our students
enjoy photos of their sponsors and like to pin up maps, postcards, posters on the notice board on their
floor and/or the classroom they use during boarding.
Q7: May I send photos to my boarding room?
You may share photos of your family and pets, as well as postcards of the area you live in. The students
pin these up on the cork board in their common area for all to share. Please be mindful that Tanzania is
a conservative country and it is not appropriate to send photos of individuals wearing swimwear or other
revealing clothing.
Q8: What if I want to send games and sporting equipment for the students to share?
To avoid any conflict among boarders, the Boarding School Leaders ask for games and sporting
equipment to be shared among students on the boarding floor and/or with all boarding students.
Q9: Should or can I send a Christmas present?
Please be mindful that although St Jude’s is a Christian school, many of our students are Muslim. Also,
St Jude’s closes for summer holidays in late November, and when students return for the new school
year in January, they are assigned new boarding rooms. This means that new students occupying your
room in January will receive any parcels received during December.
Q10: Can I send money to support the family of the students in my boarding room and what else
can I do to help?
As much as we appreciate your generosity and offer to help even more, our staff has discussed this
extensively and have decided not to allow monetary contributions to the families. For similar reasons,
sponsors are not allowed to contribute money towards other expenses the family may have such as
medical care, housing, market bills, etc.
It is not feasible for us to become involved with our students’ families beyond education or we are taking
the school away from the Mission Statement and stretching the manpower resources of the school
beyond its limit. We have to enforce the policy "education assistance only" or otherwise we would
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become an orphanage, hospital, marriage guidance association, battered wives refuge, child abuse
rehabilitation centre, dispute resolution council, AIDS clinic or bank.
Sponsors are not expected to do more than pay the sponsorship fees. Of course we totally understand
that it is hard not to provide everything we can because we are in a position to and it is very hard not to
try to help a struggling family when we see that the few dollars needed to help out are relatively easy
for us to provide. However, the school feels that the long term solutions are the ones we have to work
on and we hope that subsequent generations will be in a position to be self sufficient and therefore their
self confidence will be much stronger... and so will their children's, and so on.
In the past, sponsors have also sent us money requesting that we purchase gifts on their behalf.
Unfortunately our sponsorship team is already short-staffed and we simply cannot afford the manpower
to purchase gifts on behalf of sponsors for their student, teacher and/or boarding room. Any funds
donated for this purchase will therefore be allocated as a general donation to the school.
Q11: Can I write letters or emails to the students in my boarding room?
You are more than welcome to communicate with the students in your sponsored boarding room. Bear
in mind however that each year your room will accommodate a new group of students. To send
a letter by post, use our postal address with your boarding room’s name and campus (Moivaro or Usa
River). Some sponsors ask if they can send emails, and that’s fine, but we do not have the facilities to
print photos here at the school. We will however, print your email and photos in black and white on
regular paper and pin it up on the notice board situated on your boarding room floor. Emails can be
sent to sponsorship@schoolofstjude.co.tz. Also, please keep us informed of any changes to your
email or postal address.
Please note that the reply from the students in your boarding room may take a few months, as the
students do not have access to email and have a heavy school workload. When you write to the
students in your boarding room, please keep in mind that their world is their village. Our students’
families struggle to make ends meet and most do not have access to a TV with world news, therefore
events such as the Olympic Games might never have been heard of.
Q12: Do you screen communication with the students in my boarding room?
We read all communications that go to and from the students. We do this to protect both our students
and our sponsors. Students are not allowed to ask for presents from their sponsors. Neighbours, friends
and relatives of your sponsored students may abuse having your contacts and so confidentiality of
sponsors' contacts is a priority of the school. To prevent unscreened communications, sponsors are not
allowed to give their postal or email addresses to students. We will remove your return address from
letters and parcels that you send to students and ask that you do not give it to them if you come to visit.
Thank you for your understanding. Also if money is placed in the parcel it will be removed and donated
directly to the school as a general donation.
Q13: Can I visit the students in my boarding room?
The answer is YES! You are always welcome to visit the school and meet the students in your boarding
room. We are also happy to organise a visit to the home of ONE of the students in your boarding room.
Please contact us well in advance to make sure we can accommodate you at the school. Our Visitor
Coordinator’s email is visitor@schoolofstjude.co.tz.
All transport related-costs are payable by all visiting sponsors. The Visitor Team is more than happy to
organise all the logistics and ensure that a safe, trusted and reliable taxi is arranged for your
convenience. You will also be accompanied by a St Jude’s staff member (and a translator!) during your
home and boarding school visit.
Access to all buildings (inside and around the washing areas) that house boarding rooms is strictly out of
bounds between 3.30pm and 6pm. This is our students’ private time, when they clean, wash and bathe.
We do not allow visitors to spend the night at the boarding school. This rule is in place for both our
students’ and your protection.
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Q14: Can I bring gifts for the students in my boarding room?
Yes, as long as they can be shared by each student. Please refer to Q5, Q6 and Q7.
Q15: Can I bring a gift when visiting one of the student’s families?
If you would like to bring a gift for the student’s family you will be visiting, we suggest postcards and tea
towels from your country, or fleece blankets are always well received. Thermos, mosquito nets can also
be purchased locally, along with soap, sugar, tea, rice, flour and biscuits. These items can be purchased
directly from the school so do not feel obligated to bring something from abroad. St Jude’s Visitor Team
can easily organise for you to purchase a “homepack” of goodies – email visitor@schoolofstjude.co.tz for
more details.
Q16: When are my next sponsorship fees due?
Your sponsorship renewal fees are due 12 months after commencement of your sponsorship. A
reminder email will be sent to you at least a month before the next fees are due. This email will remind
you of the methods of payments as well as the amount of the sponsorship fee.
Q17: Are my sponsorship fees tax-deductible?
For Australia:
All donation and sponsorship contributions over AUD $2.00 are tax deductible when payment is made via our
website or to tax-deductible bank accounts advised by us. We encourage you to make your tax-deductible
payment through our website (www.schoolofstjude.co.tz). Tax receipts will be sent to supporters within 4
weeks of the end of each Australian financial year in June. If you would like a tax receipt sooner, please make
contact with us and we will make the necessary arrangements. This is only possible with the very kind
assistance of Rotary Australia.
For America:
US-based donors and sponsors can support our activities in a tax-efficient way through a contribution or
sponsorship payment to The School of St Jude – American Fund at the King Baudouin Foundation United
States (KBFUS). Because KBFUS is a public charity, within the meaning of Sections 501 (c)(3) and 509 (a)(1)
of the IRC, donors and sponsors may claim the maximum tax benefits allowed by US tax law for their
contributions and sponsorship fees. KBFUS will send to each donor contributing US$ 250 or more an
acknowledgement of his or her donation, as requested by US tax law. For more information about KBFUS,
visit www.kbfus.org
For New Zealand:
NZ-based donors and sponsors can support our activities in a tax-efficient way by making their contribution to
Rotary New Zealand World Community Services (RNZWCS). For more information about RNZWCS,
visit www.rnzwcs.org.
For United Kingdom:
UK-based donors and sponsors can support our activities in a tax-efficient way by making their contribution to
Liverpool Charity and Voluntary Services (LCVS). Contributions from individuals to LCVS (St Jude’s
School) can be eligible for Gift Aid and gifts of shares/land/property and Legacies can be made tax-efficiently.
Company donations are eligible to be offset against Corporation Tax. LCVS is helping St Jude’s and it’s
supporters to maximize the benefit of their giving. LCVS is a UK registered charity and charitable Trust
Corporation which has been processing charity funds for over 80 years. For more information about LCVS,
visit www.lcvs.org.uk.
For the Rest of the World:
On receipt of your donation or sponsorship contribution, The School of St Jude will issue a general receipt by
email in the currency received. We hope that this documentation assists with tax deductibility in your country.
If there is another way that we can help to make your contribution to St Jude's tax deductible, please do not
hesitate to contact Gemma at schoolofstjude@habari.co.tz with your suggestion.
ooOOOoo
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