Contact Us

Ways to get in touch

This ‘telephone’ has too many shortcomings to be seriously considered as a means of communication. The device is inherently of no value to us.{a}

We welcome feedback from our readers

{1}

For general information about communications to and from St Helena please see our page Communications.

If you have a question: before you contact us please could you check that your question isn’t already answered on Saint Helena Island Info. Try pages Visitor Information, Frequently Asked Questions about St Helena and Help With for most common queries. We may not to respond to questions about subjects fully covered in our pages.

Whichever method of communication you choose it must take place in English.{2}

Please Note Communications to and from St Helena are less reliable than in most developed countries, due to telephone, Internet and power outages. If your message is not answered, and it does not ask a question already fully covered on this site, please re-send it.

How to contact us

Below: By Email By Post By Telephone Other Options

By Email (preferred)

john@sainthelenaisland.info

Our preferred method for being contacted is email. We get many emails per day and try to get a reply back within 48 hours whenever possible, even if it is only We’ve no idea - we’ll ask around and get back to you… Emails must be in English - we have no translation capability.

IS IT REALLY US YOU WANT? For accommodation and excursion bookings or enquiries you want the Tourist Information Office; for visas and legal enquiries you need the Government of St Helena; for lost relatives and ancestors see the links on our Family And Friends page.

Please Note If you need to communicate a location to us please see ‘How to communicate a location to us’.

Junk Email

We do not need:

• SEO work to increase sales - because we aren’t selling anything (which anyone who had actually read the website would know).

• A supplier of concrete, light fittings, paper bags, yak meat, flange grommets, grunge wranglers or, for that matter, any other manufactured product.{3}

• Any unbelievable offers (as per your description, we don’t believe them).

• Your CV. Saint Helena Island Info does not employ staff, and has no plans ever to do so.

• To read your research paper on Lemming-farming in Mongolia, or any other subject of absolutely no relevance to St Helena.

And, in case it’s not obvious, sending us exactly the same email 1,000 times from different email addresses will not persuade us to read it, let alone take any action on it.

If you want our attention for your SEO services, don’t begin by telling us that there are a lot of errors on the site{4}! Here’s an offer: send us just one FREE improvement suggestion that is relevant and that we can implement at no cost to us. If we like (and can use) your idea then we will respond to your email. The rest go in the recycling bin…

You may also want to see some other emails we binned and why, and the stupid questions we have been asked and the facetious replies we resisted the temptation to give are on our page Frequently Asked Questions about St Helena.

By Post

P.O. Box 37, Jamestown, Island of St Helena, South Atlantic Ocean, STHL 1ZZ

Does anyone use post anymore? Well, if you do you are welcome to try it, to the address above, but be aware that whatever you send will take ages to reach us (typically two months from the UK; longer if it gets mis-routed and comes via Bermuda or The Falklands, which it sometimes does) and because we get very little post we don’t check our post box that often, adding to the delay. Plus, unless what you ask is really fascinating we probably won’t be able to afford the cost of posting you a reply. You would be better to use a more 21st Century means of communicating, like email.

Unless you’re sending us a lawsuit, of course; but frankly, why bother? Your legal system almost certainly has no jurisdiction here, so maybe best to raise whatever your problem is with us by email and we can take it from there in a civilised fashion…

By Telephone

Note that telephone calls to St Helena are expensive and, due to satellite lag, can be quite difficult - you speak then there’s a couple of seconds pause before you get a reply. So unless your call is really urgent it’s better to use email.

The international dialling code for calls to St Helena is 290{5}. In most countries, St Helena is treated as a ‘high-cost destination’ and you may need to contact your telephone service provider to get calls to St Helena un-barred.

Of course, we cannot guarantee to be available to take your call, even during these times. Sorry!

Other Options

Message in a bottle

Who knows? It might work! Just make sure there are no plant seeds etc. inside, or it will be destroyed by Customs for biosecurity reasons.

Carrier Pigeon

If you have one that can fly non-stop 1,800Km from Africa (or 2,900Km from South America) by all means give it a go, but be aware that at the editor of this website’s home we have cats…☺

Heliograph

The basic idea of a Heliograph is that you set up a tall tower with an adjustable mirror on the top and reflect the sunlight towards the recipient, signalling using flashes encoded, for example, in Morse Code (more on the Wikipedia). Well, even if you live on the Western edge of Africa and can build a tower around 53Km high{6} - that’s about 100 times the height of the world’s largest current man-made structure - with a really, really big mirror, you still won’t reach us because we live in Jamestown on the North-Western side of the island. In the bottom of a deep valley. Sorry.

Ham Radio

If you are an amateur radio operator, or can find one near to you, you may be able to make contact with one of the island’s amateur radio operators and pass on a message. However, transmission conditions on Shortwave are notoriously irregular so it may take a while to get a link set up for passing on the message, and then it will probably be late at night so they won’t give us the message immediately. Then, when we reply, the same follows for our response to come back to you. On the whole, probably not a lot more effective than by post!

Meet us in person

This site is run from the editor of this website’s family home in Jamestown, which is really not suitable for welcoming unexpected callers. So if you want to meet in person please contact us in advance to make an arrangement.

How QQQQQNOTQQQQQ to contact us

Below: By Text Message Via our Social Media sites

By Text Message (SMS)

You cannot text us, for two reasons:

• We do not have, or have access to, a mobile (‘cell’) telephone to receive the text message; and

• Our local network has trouble receiving SMS messages from overseas so your SMS probably wouldn’t arrive anyway.

Via our Social Media sites

See our page Social Media for details.

Read More

Emails we binned

Purely for your amusement, here are some emails we received and put straight into the deleted items bin:

1. I am a producer of yak meat, please contact me if you need, I will give you a satisfactory price and high-quality products. Our company has many years of experience in the yak meat industry.

2. From: Bennet Russell [russellbennet3311@hotmail.com] Sent: 10 June 2018 15:34 To: john@sainthelenaisland.info Subject: My Regards
   Hello I am Mr Dickson Government contractor by profession connected with formal leader, i need your assistant of transferring and investing $66.500 million this money were set aside for investment unfortunately new Government took over the set ,this money is secure where it was deposited i am in charged now i am ready to provide the money to you for partnership business if you are ready let me know for us to arrange and discuss in full details on how to move the money to you in your country for profitable joint venture I wait to hear from you. My Regards

   We didn’t know this scam was still circulating!

3. I have a legal and genuine lucrative business deal to discuss with you. Can I trust you to be a sincere partner to handle the business? For more information, kindly reply to this email.

   Legal and genuine? Well then, I’ll reply immediately!

4. Good day Mr John, my name is pastor Abel Ovie from Nigeria. I am into rural evangelism and church planting here in Nigeria. Sir, God have laid it in my heart to come and do 5 days crusade at saint helena. The sick will be healed, the demon possessed will be delivered and great blessing of God will come upon the island. I want the government to sponsor our trip. Please WhatsApp me on my mobile number [᠁] thanks.

5. Dear Saint Helena Island: Please forward my Pinterest set-up to the females and any God Fearing males. Go out of your way if possible and make categorically certain the girls obtain my Pinterest address.

6. My valid name is Kalinin VLADIMIR. I’m a Russian federation citizen. I sincerely need your cooperation in order to help Ukraine. I’ve always made it crystal clear that I do not support my country’s invasion of Ukraine. It is inhumane in this 21st century.

   I’m into energy and also a mandate holder for crude oil marketing. I hold a license for the lifting and marketing of GEPetrol Crude oil which is supplied by the National Oil Company of Equatorial Guinea (GEPetrol), selling crude to companies in Ukraine and China before the war broke out. I have unpaid crude oil commission funds still pending with GEPetrol which I would like to direct, at least a reasonable amount to help the good people of Ukraine who are suffering from the war.

   In order for me to help them, I need your cooperation as I cannot travel outside Russia because of restrictions. What is needed is your acceptance, then I will connect you with the Payment Coordinator who will help you make the Change of Ownership at the Court of Justice and help you transfer the funds into your account.

   I will be grateful if you can help me achieve this. Ukrainians are really in need and our help is needed. Let me know if we can work together.

   We were amused by the Ukraine twist.

7. Good afternoon. Could you please provide me with contact information for someone who has worked in construction on Saint Helena Island, either as a builder, sub-contractor, or personal assistant? I am looking forward to your positive reply

   With information pages on Saint Helena Island Info{7} it might be imagined that we know everything there is to know about St Helena, but actually we don’t. ☺

8. Good day, I am General Mutombo, in charge of a mining operation in DRC. Our focus is on extracting valuable minerals such as coltan and palladium stones and it is my duty to ensure their safe extraction and distribution. However, I find myself in need of a reliable partner in South Africa who can assist me in selling these stones on a monthly basis. In return for your services, you will be entitled to 30% of every sale made. To proceed with this endeavor, I kindly request you provide me with your details via my private email: gjmutombo@gmail.com. Thanks GJ Mutombo

   If he wants a partner in South Afriuca, why is he writing to me?

9. Our company is interested in purchasing some quality products and services from your company. We want to place an order for a large quantity of about 360,000 usd. We also want you to send your services and Products catalogue.

   Given that anyone looking at Saint Helena Island Info would immediately realise that we have no products to sell…

10. Are you looking for a Mobile App (Android/Hybrid) for your website?

    No. And if I was, I certainly wouldn’t offer the business to some random person that junk-mailed me.

11. Dear sainthelenaisland.info, Hope you are doing great! This is Ellie Business Analyst from a reputed digital marketing agency (We are operating for over 11 years in the global market having its marketing office in Italy,USA, Israel) We exist for such a long only because we follow ethical business practices. My team discovered a few issues on your sainthelenaisland.info which are affecting your online presence, website traffic, user experience, and ranking. If you want, can I send you a detailed issue report with a quote? Awaiting your earliest response.

    Why not also say these issues are affecting my wealth, health and sex-life? And so curious that Ellie has spotted these issues but none of the other users or site validators we employ have found them…

12. Good day, The department of Defence requesting your company for the supply and delivery of the SMGK9 TACTICAL BOOTS. These Boots will be used immediately within our military bases around, they are needed urgently. THIS OFFER GOES TO ALL REGISTERED COMPANIES ORGANISATION Compulsorily, All Quotations should be sent to email: zandile.khumalo@gov-dod.co.za

    Feel free to email them if you dare!

13. We are a trading company that distributes frozen food products worldwide. We specialize in supplying Tuna, Salmon (Meal, Mince, oil, Ground, etc) and fish (also fish by-products) from our network of suppliers and delivering to customers anywhere in the world. We can offer Sardine W.R. and H.G.T. with competitive price.

    An island wants to import fish?

14. It begins…

    Nice to meet you[???],I humbly write to solicit for your partnership and assistance with divine confidence that you are a reliable and honest person who will be capable for this important business transaction, believing also that you will not let me down either now or in the future.

    …and goes on about the political crises in my country and that he her wicked uncle wants to kill me and take over all my father property’s[sic] from me because I have no one to defend me and ends with…

    I am willing to offer you 20% out of the Total Fund just for your Assistance for helping me

    Stunningly elaborate for something that goes straight in the deleted items bin!

15. I came across your page links.htm, and was impressed with your resources on bone health. We’ve just published …

    We’d be impressed if they found anything on bone health on that page, or any other!

16. Headlined The Final Chapter in the History of this World has Begun. True, because the Creator declared it.

    Didn’t even bother opening this one!

17. I am still waiting for your reply. Please let me know if you are interested in my services.

    If we’d been interested…

NB we are aware (but just in case you aren’t) that most - if not all - of these are ‘harvesting’ emails - if you respond the sender knows they have an active email address, which they promptly sell to marketing companies worldwide and your spam volume increases. NEVER respond to spam emails!