Batswana students in Canada need help

| Thursday January 29, 2009 00:00

The bus drivers for the local transport (just like combis except that its operated by the city of Ottawa) have been on strike since December 10 2008. Some of us were not yet done with the exams. The exam period ended December 22 2008 and went back to school January 5 2009. Because of lack of transport we used taxis to go to school and they cost  on average $40 for the return trip. We thought the strike will be over when the January semester started ,unfortunately, even today there is no sign that it will be over soon. Most students have resorted to walking for more than one hour to school and the temperatures are ranging from -20 to -30 degrees celcius on average.There is snow everywhere.

We have told the organisation called WUSC(World university services of Canada,www.wusc.ca) that looks after Botswana students in Canada, but they have provided us with no help. The government gives them money for our tution fees,allowances etc so that they can act on behalf of the students and send recommendations, and  concerns to the government, but it seems they are doing nothing pertaining to the current situation. Some students are no longer going to school as they cannot afford taxis fares and they are also unable to walk to school due to freezing temperatures and long distances to school. For the fourth year students its so bad because they can not retake the course as the government said its no longer sponsoring retakes. Judging from the current conditions some of the students will not be able to pass the course.

Please help us, tell the government who sent us to study and our parents that we are fighting a battle we are about to loose. I dont know whether the government will act after some students have died of pneumonia or freeze to death while walking to school.
Please publish our cry!!

Thank you very much.

Botswana students studying in OTTAWA,CANADA