BY : DARI KWABENA MATHEW (+233552376423)
Some hundred Ghanaian medical students studying on a Government of Ghana scholarship in Cuba have been left stranded and their academic pursuits are threatened due to the non-payment of their monthly stipends.
The students who claim they have not been paid their stipends for about eight months told Johnnie Hughes in an interview that they are living in hell and feel neglected by the state.
“We are now living in hell. We are currently depending on our friends in other countries for money but however we are not able to go back to the same friends for money. We feel neglected and it is a very tough situation we are going through” spokesperson for the students said.
According to the students, the Ghana embassy has been telling them they are working on it for the past eight months but nothing is being done. The agreement with the Scholarship Secretariat was that at the end of every month the students will be given stipends. “Literally we are to receive $250 per month” he unwillingly disclosed.
The stranded students further revealed they have resorted to certain complex means to survive though detrimental to their academic pursuits. “I am going out with a lady who comes from a good home and she is the one supporting me. Some of us are living in hideouts and our academics have been badly affected” one of the medical students told the media.
However, the students who are training to become doctors have assured that the challenges they are going through will not prevent them from coming back to serve Ghana.
