Areefa Mustapha is using her time to serve her community, Line Path Village, Upper Corentyne, Berbice and because of her benevolent character, she is well-known and respected in the community. Twenty-four-year-old Mustapha is an entrepreneur, teaches young children about the Islamic religion and is a volunteer in her village, doing many things behind the scenes to ensure people are given a hot meal daily.

The mother of one has a roadside snackette, Areefa’s Halall Food Centre, the only one of its kind in the village, the mobile red stand. Growing up, she said that she wanted to do something fulfilling, like having her own small business, a place where people can visit to have a hot meal even if they do not have any money.

She thought about what she wanted and after some time, it dawned on her she must open a food stand to help people and provide wholesome foods at an affordable and pocket-friendly price. “After I graduated from the First Aid Training session at Skeldon Hospital and was looking for work, nothing came up but I landed a teaching job but after some time I knew I wanted to do more,” she said.

Mustapha later went to the twin-island republic of Trinidad and Tobago where she studied for three years and returned to Guyana and got married. After marriage, it was the perfect time to start her own small business and she got things together to open her roadside food stand.

Her home-cooked meals are flavourful and it tantalises the taste buds with a kaleidoscope of deliciousness which makes her customers keep coming back for more. Mustapha makes egg balls, cassava balls, fish and bread, macaroni and cheese, bara with mango sour, fried rice with fried chicken, chicken and chips, baked chicken with chowmein and fresh local fruit juices.

The only carbonated beverage she sells is Pepsi and she would buy fruits from the farmers in the village to make local juice to go with the foods she sells from Mondays to Fridays. Mustapha would wake up early in the mornings to prepare her snacks and foods and is opened by 06:30hrs and would close up when everything is sold out by 14:00hrs.

“Having my own business is a good feeling, finding a job before the pandemic was a tall task but now I am surviving with this small business,” she said. She told the Pepperpot Magazine that she feels empowered because she is doing what she loves and is liking it a whole lot, she aims to reach out to people.

Mustapha also employs two persons from within the community and is very pleased about that since she needed extra help alongside her husband. She would sell chicken and chips, local fruit juices and many other meals including, roti and curry and the people in the village support her fully and even passers-by would visit to get a quick bite.

Mustapha is also a teacher at the Maktab Islamic Learning Centre where young children would be taught how to behave in the masjid, manners and etiquette and Arabic Islamic teachings. She stated that before the pandemic she had 24 children attending the classes but that number dwindled and now she would only accommodate a small group.

Mustapha has 16 children in her class and she would take them in groups on different days of the week to practice social distancing and proper hand hygiene to ultimately reduce the spread of COVID-19. The classes would start at 16:00hrs and end at 17:00hrs and it is for children between the ages of five to 12 years old and she is doing these classes free of cost and would provide snacks for the children.

“I like teaching and I do it because I want to and it is my way of giving back to society and it is rewarding,” she said.