Julie Maio

Julie, originally from Theydon Bois, a small village on the edge of Epping Forest in Essex, first visited The Gambia with her Italian husband, Luigi Maio, in 1990. From their first visit they fell in love with The Gambia and knew this was where they wanted to spend the rest of their days.

In 1995 the couple opened the first authentic Pizza House in the country, and it turned out that the Gambians loved Luigi’s pizzas! The success of the Pizza House soon meant that Julie and Luigi needed more space for all the people that wanted to come and visit so they expanded their small four-bedroom guest house. Today, Luigi’s boasts 20 luxury self-catering apartments alongside 14 bed and breakfast rooms.

In 2009, another husband-and-wife team, Joe and Fiona Kajue, opened a school, the Jofi School – named for both their names coming together, just down the road from Luigi’s Hotel. There is no free state school in The Gambia and Joe and Fiona wanted to offer schooling for children from poor backgrounds whose families couldn’t afford to pay for them to go to school.

Julie offered to help however she could and began taking tourists from the hotel over to the school to visit and they began to sponsor children and offer their time to volunteer.

In July 2011, Fiona and husband Joe were forced to return to the UK following an accident seriously damaging Fiona’s knee and this is when Julie took over the running of the school’s finances and administration.