Meet Hajia Afiruwa Sulemana – Caterer

Hajia Afiruwa is a caterer of the GSFP who has been supplying food to the Kpalung RC Primary School for almost a year. We cought up with her at her hometowm of Zosali during a field visit in July 2009.

SIGN: How long have you been catering?

H.A; I have been catering for a year now

SIGN: IS there a functional SIC in the community?

H.A: There is an SIC but unfortunately they do not meet regularly. However, recently the District Assembly through SNV called a meeting to boost the involvement of the community and to also make the SIC more active. Hopefully this would help increase their involvement.

SIGN: What food crops do the farmers of Kpalung produce and which do you buy from them?

H.A: The community produces quite a lot including yam, okro, rice, maize and local vegetables. They are also able to provide meat. I usually buy cooking oil, rice, yam, maize, tomatoes, fruits and eggs from the community. The problems is that farmers want cash for their produce. Unfortunately sometimes the money sent by government is delayed hence we are compelled to purchase on credit from the market. We also have a storage facility we can store bulk purchases but its not good enough. We need a better storage facility.

SIGN: What would you want to see improved in the GSFP

H.A: Money should be released soon. Sometimes we sacrifice our margin in order to ensure there is food for the children. I have about 269 pupils to feed and some parents who do not have children in the school even send the children to the school during feeding hours. It is in humane to send them away so we usually have to feed more than we budgetted for.

The kitchen and dinning halls should be a priority. The kitchen is not well equipped and in my school for example there is no dinning hall.