Rumbu (Hausa word for food bank) - visibility

The Rumbu or food bank is situated at Fantsuam Foundation.

Food from which is given to children to make up for perennial food shortage usually caused by poor food storage facility, poor value chain on produce from widely spread small scale/subsistence farming.

 The issue(s) that this project is addressing

Usually, by the end of February, household food reserve which survived poor storage would have been completely exhausted. With the rainy season being expected sometime in Aril/May and first harvests in July, for many families, there is usually a five month (March to July) period of starvation which affects low income families in which many of the Foundation's OVCS are placed

Additional information

International volunteers (VSOs) – have been instrumental in helping mobilize resources with which initial foodstuffs (maize, soya beans, sorghum, rice and beans) for the Rumbu were bought early this year (2010).

Out of the 500 enrolled OVCs, 91 (female: 44; male: 47) highly vulnerable ones were selected and given 5kg of foodstuffs (2.5kg each of either rice and beans; or soya beans and maize; or soya beans and sorghum) once every two weeks.

The food distribution began in March and ended in August 2010

This needs sustainability given the recurrent nature of food shortage in rural, agrarian societies.

Dadamac is helping this project to become more visible.