It's Not Food We Need; Evacuate Us – NUGS-China To Gov't
The National Union of Ghana Students (NUGS) in Wuhan, China says the government's decision to send them food is not a major solution to their current situation.
According to them, the move proves that the government has no intention of evacuating them from the coronavirus-infected country.
A delegation from the National Union of Ghana Students (NUGS) yesterday [Tuesday] met the Foreign Affairs Minister, Shirley Ayorkor Botchway to discuss the situation of 151 Ghanaian students currently residing in Wuhan.
The Minister promised them among other things that food items and other needs had been dispatched from Ghana to sustain them in Wuhan.
But on the back of this, the Vice President of NUGS-China Michael Addaney told Citi News that although two executives have taken delivery of 1,000 masks from the embassy in Beijing, they are unable to distribute them due to the current lockdown in the city.
“The attempt of the Foreign Affairs Ministry to send us food and money means they are not willing to evacuate us. They want us to be comfortable in this very uncomfortable situation. It’s a matter of life and death. We have no freedom, let alone the mind to study and yet school has started. We are working online with our supervisors. Others are doing online classes. How can we study under this situation?” he asked.
“Our fears have been confirmed that our leaders do not appreciate or understand the situation here. Because they have not been here, unlike the other countries who have sent experts to come and see the situation for themselves and afterwards recommend evacuation. We have been engaging our embassy only online so they don’t understand our situation that is why they are sending us food. How are they even going to distribute the food to us under this lockdown? We appreciate what they are trying to do but we think their intentions are not positive,” he complained.
Background
Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey, the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration has met a delegation from the National Union of Ghana Students (NUGS) to discuss the outbreak of the novel coronavirus in China and the safety of Ghanaian students resident in Wuhan.
Madam Ayorkor Botchwey briefed NUGS on the measures the Government has taken to ease the plight of Ghanaian students in Wuhan, according to a statement from the Ministry.
The Ministry has among other things, granted approval for the Ghana Mission in Beijing to expend an amount of ¥100,000 (USD$14,286) to cater for emergency needs, such as the provision of nose masks, hand sanitizers and food items, especially for Ghanaians in Wuhan and its environs.
It has also dispatched cartons of assorted Ghanaian food items to the Mission in Beijing for onward delivery to the students in Wuhan.
On the issue of the non-evacuation of the students from Wuhan, the Minister acknowledged the general apprehension among parents in Ghana and sympathised with them.
---citinewsroom