The situation in which Ghanaian students find themselves here in China are unbearable, this has made lives of students uncomfortable that they can hardly concentrate on their academic work, while graduated students are crying out loud for help to enable them go home. Reasons adduced to this situation are detailed below:
1. Students under Ghana government scholarship have not received their allowances from January 2010 till date. Some of these students will be graduating in June 2010, and they have neither had any positive information from the embassy nor the scholarship secretariat as to how they were returning home. This kind of delays has the tendency of compelling students to over stay their visas and be ejected from their places of residence, which can also be disastrous. Other allowances that were to be received in 2009 to help graduating students write their thesis and publish articles were not given; students had to write their thesis and publish articles by borrowing money from friends, which has to be paid back. The last time students received allowances from the government was October 2009.
In China, Students are not expected to work, if one gets a part-time teaching job and is caught by the police he/she will be jailed, forfeit scholarship, and be sent back home, these restrictions make the situation even worst.
2. The Scholarship Secretariat has been sponsoring annual congresses since the inauguration of the union, at which forum the Ambassador or a representative from the embassy honours the congress with his/her presence and interacts with students, get to know them personally, discuss problems facing students, and counsels them. Sadly enough this year the Government through the Scholarship Secretariat has failed to respond to all three letters sent to the secretariat through the mission. The annual congress is around the corner and we do not know what to do now.
3. The Ghana mission in China’s responses to NUGS phone calls are nothing to write home about. The least talked about it, the better.
4. The Union has tried time without number to get this problem resolved all to no avail, there have been promises upon promises from the embassy which have not be fulfilled, and there has been a meeting which has yielded no fruits. The matter is now beyond us.
We are given the government up to the 10th of June 2010, if we do not receive any positive feedback, all Ghanaian students in China will match to the Embassy in Beijing and demonstrate.
The National Union of Ghanaian Students, China was formed in 1988 to foster unity, strengthen and reinforce the union amongst Ghanaian students. It has as one of its mandate the right to defend members and awaken the spirit of solidarity among them. The union automatically consists of all Ghanaians studying in China under full or partial scholarship and fee paying students.
We are therefore making a humble appeal to all Ghanaians home and abroad, all media houses and all stake holders concerned to come to our aid to rescue the troubling situation.
Contacts:
The President: Anthony Joe Turkson
Secretary: Nashiru Mahama
Phone: (0086)13477073279/13262838641/18752982652
Emails:nashirumahama@yahoo.com, mrjoet@hotmail.com
