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27.07.2014 General News

Neglected By Gov't: Ghanaian Students In Cuba Fight Back

By Farouk Adams
Neglected By Gov't: Ghanaian Students In Cuba Fight Back
27.07.2014 LISTEN

My fellow citizens, we're sure by now you are fed up with news every now and then of Ghana government refusing to pay the stipends on students in Cuba for about ten months now. Yeah,we are tired too! We all cannot imagine how and why our own government will send us abroad and leave us to our fate knowing we have no other means of survival than the agreed monthly stipends.

The agreement was that, government will support us in the form of monthly stipends etc. for the duration of our course and we, on our part will offer services to the government, after graduating, for a period of 5 years.

The fact is that, we take care of ourselves with this stipend: food, clothes, toiletries, name it. So imagine 10 months without money to do these things, and studying medicine at the same time. A lot of us look like homeless people now.

What some of us do to survive, we prefer not to mention it, but we can't continue doing it.Most of us have just finished our first year, and we just managed to pass. When we come home poorly trained, we are going to attend to the average Ghanaian, who through no fault of his, doesn't have to opportunity to choose his doctors. Meanwhile, the guys at the top (in government), get sick and fly abroad to get treated.

We are adults and would like to take our destiny into our hands. We mean we would have like to work to support ourselves. Anyone who knows about Cuba knows this is not possible here. Hence, we would not waste much of your time trying to explain it.

Each time we come out to complain, the government makes a statement to portray all is well. Last time the minister of finance announced his ministry had released funds to pay off debts. Kindly ask the minister where the money is, because it hasn't got to Cuba yet. Is it on a ship coming? When will this ship cross the Atlantic and get us our money?

Finally, we would like to tell the government of Ghana that we have been patient. We just want to study and become professionals. We have endured a lot. We have worked miracles to keep ourselves alive for 10 months without our stipends. Our patience is running out. We now live our lives guided by our instincts. A hungry man they say is an angry man indeed.

God Bless Ghana!

Farouk Adams

Havana, Cuba

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