The Head Teacher and two children from a remote school in Uganda, are coming to the Isle of Man to meet with island children in the hope of forging links and understanding between the two communities.

The visit is being hosted by Standard Bank, sponsors of Mifumi Primary School in eastern Uganda. It will be the first time that the Head Teacher of Mifumi, Bernard Onyango, and the two students, Olam Moses and Adikin Sylivia have travelled outside of their country.

They will be coming to the IOM in May where they’ll visit Ballasalla, and other schools talking with fellow pupils and staff. Ballasalla School has provided greatly to Mifumi over the past few years and continues to grow its on-going relationship, through conducting Skype interviews and also with the creation of a pen pal system – of which Olam and Adikin are members of and write regularly to their Ballasalla pen pals.

Mifumi school gives hope and a future to over 700 children in a remote community and Standard Bank has been sponsoring the charity since 2013, Chris Till, Chief Executive Officer, Standard Bank, Isle of Man, said: ‘We’ve run a programme to send a staff member over to Uganda for the last two years to get a proper understanding of what we can do and how we can help the school. This year though, it seemed logical to bring representatives of the school to our island so that as many children and staff can meet them as possible. We have started to create the links between our schools and Mifumi through the installation of a satellite system so that Skype calls can now be made, but this really is one large step in building stronger relations between our communities.’

The visit will be preceded by a fundraising day on May 12th, a Charity Golf Day at the Mount Murray Golf Club, Santon. Teams are being invited to take part in the afternoon event for a minimum donation of just ?250. For those unable to play but still wanting to take part in the day, sponsored holes are also available priced at ?100.


Participants will be treated to a warm bowl of soup and fresh bread before the round, with a 2 course carvery meal in the clubhouse afterwards.

Organiser, Jody Smith, a support worker at Standard Bank, visited Mifumi last year, ‘I was lucky to be chosen on the Standard Bank programme as one of the staff who visited the school. Since visiting Mifumi I have organised other fundraisers and sent donated shoes, clothes, educational materials and sports equipment out to the school. If you could see how much even the smallest donation means to these children then you too would be inspired, which is why it’s so exciting that they are coming to the Isle of Man. The golf fundraiser is going to be a lot of fun, and to put it in context, one team’s entry fees will pay for an entire month of Mifumi school’s boarding fees. So I urge people to come along, play some golf and make a difference.’

You can find out further information by emailing Jody: jody.smith@standardbank.com

Standard Bank staff in the Isle of Man have been raising money and sending donated goods to the school for the past two years.

Further information visit: www.mifumischool.com