Ghanaian students in China have receive funds

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By
Emmanuel Todd, GNA

Accra, Feb 27, GNA –
Mr Jay Hyde, President, National Union of Ghana Students (NUGS) on Thursday
said it had in collaboration with NUGS China, supervised the payment of monies
to Ghanaian students in Wuhan China by government.

He said $500 had
been payed to 99 per cent of 344 students by the Government of Ghana to
students held in the Hubei province of Wuhan China to support their upkeep
following the outbreak of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) in the region.

He said “no Ghanaian
student in China is under any conditions which may cause us to worry” as a team
of counsellors and psychologists had been allotted to help students in
distress. 


He said this at a
press engagement held in Accra to address issues students faced in relation to
Coronavirus outbreak in Wuhan, China and the Payment of Student Loans by the
Student Loan Trust Fund (SLTF) on Thursday.

He commended the
effort of NUGS Executives, China, over the past weeks since the outbreak amidst
sleepless nights, conference calls and media engagements and urged them to
‘please keep on until we win the fight against COVID-19’.

The group called on
government to draft a more comprehensive strategy to show a more consistent
concern about their plight and map up weekly surveillance on the Ghanaian
student community in China just as the Chinese Government was doing daily by
checking for their vitals.

“We expect the
government to intensify screening exercises at the Nation’s boarders to prevent
chances of an outbreak,” he said.

“The Ghanaian
Embassy or diplomatic missions should be in a position to go into the affected
places to take surveillance responsibilities. It is simply not enough to say
because they have food, water and protective gears, they’re safe,” he said.

He said NUGS
proposes a joint situational report from Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry
of Health, and Ghana Health Service, to be issued to the media through a press
encounter or publication in order to keep relevant research institutions and
bodies abreast with the current status of Ghanaian nationals abroad.

“We urged them to
collaborate with embassies in these countries in order to have accurate data on
the health status of Ghanaians there,” he said.

The NUGS President
speaking on Student Loans said, beneficiaries of the SLTF had not received
payments for the past two semesters but were counting on the Ministry of
Finance to redeem its promise to release a ten million Ghana Cedis Cheque by
Friday, February 28 to be disbursed by Monday, March 2nd.

He said in view of
the assurance they had called off their intended demonstration scheduled for
March 10, “we once again hope they keep to their promise”.

GNA