General News of 2013-03-11

GETFund sponsored students in UK call for urgent gov’t attention

We, GETFund Sponsored Students currently studying energy and petroleum related programs in various universities in the United Kingdom (UK), wish to convey our disappointment at GETFund and other stakeholders of Education for failure to ensure that our living allowances are paid promptly despite our outcry for urgent support for about a month ago.

At the point of leaving the country for our studies in the UK, they (GETFund) promised to pay our living allowances upon our arrival. However, it is about six months now – since September 2012, and we have not received our stipends.

The most disheartening thing is the fact that GETFund has confirmed receipt of money from Ministry of Finance purposely for payment of our living allowances over four weeks now (since February 6, 2013), yet our financial quandary is still lingering. Besides, we were assured by the Public Relations Manager of GETFund, through Citi News, that Fidelity Bank would “wire the money” to us in the ensuing week but that has proven to be a deception.

Their failure to ‘wire’ us the money as promised has even further aggravated our situation since we relied on that promise to renegotiate strictly binding agreements with our respective accommodation facilities managers. Our inability to redeem our promise per our renegotiated terms has created suspicion about the credibility of GETFund in the minds of our landlords.

Our accommodation is a nightmare as we are unable to sleep over the copious threats of legal action and/or possible eviction from our rooms due to unpaid overdue rent charges. We have exhausted all chances to renegotiate for further extension of date for payment since we have virtually lost the moral and legal credibility to propose further extensions.

As far as our current survival and accommodation are concerned, we are sitting on a time-bomb with our fate dangling like pendulum, since our hostel facility managers have forwarded our files to their legal department for court processing leading to legal action and possible eviction from our rooms. Some of our colleagues have already been evicted from their rooms in some universities and currently living under the mercy of their friends who are also awaiting their eviction soon.

We are presently overstretched financially to our limits. Going for lectures is now unthinkable as we can hardly concentrate given our lingering financial predicament. We are now at the crossroads where boycotting our lectures in search for menial jobs for survival is inevitable, but the question is how to even find the jobs???

It is lamentable that our several outcries for urgent intervention has been reduced to “political ball” in the country whiles GETFund and other stakeholders of youth and education have resorted to perpetual “culture of silence” as we continue to languish in pain and despondency in a foreign land.

We wish to humbly call on the president, His Excellency John Dramani Mahama, to promptly salvage the situation.

Thank you. Ghanaian International Students (GETFund Sponsored) UK