"We Want Our Allowances" Sierra Leonean Students in Cuba Writes High Commision in UK
We, the Sierra Leonean students in Cuba, are writing through your media to complain over the attitude of the Sierra Leone High Commission in the United Kingdom (SLHC-UK) towards us. It could be recalled that last year, at this same time, we wrote complaining about this same issue. We have found it to be a habit that the SLHC-UK always holds on to our student allowances remitted by the Sierra Leone government for onward transfer to our account in Cuba. We have being in constant touch with the Ministry of Education in Freetown and we were told that the allowances have left the shores of Sierra Leone since the last weeks of September, 2007 but for one reason or the other, the SLHC-UK has not made the necessary transfer to Cuba. The allowances are said to have being disbursed at the same time as the allowances for the Sierra Leonean students in China and with the information we have from our colleagues in China, they have received their allowances quite some time ago. We are confused as to what our allowances are still doing in someboy's bank account in the UK when it is supposed to be with us.
The President has asked Sierra Leoneans to change but it seems as if change is a missing word in the dictionary of some of our countrymen. This is not the first time this is happening, it is not new. For the past 4 years, we have undergone the same treatment from the same people and we are sick and tired of it. We have to live through difficult conditions out here just because somebody is deliberately holding on to or multplying our allowances for personal benefits. We have communicated our plight to them on a number of occasions but to no avail. We don't even get a reply to our mails. We are once again kindly asking the SLHC-UK to please transfer our allowances to our account in Cuba, we are in desperate financial situations and we really need to resolve these situations.
We will greatly appreciate it if this letter is published so that everybody gets to know our situation and so that the people responsible will do what they are supposed to do. Thanks in advance for your cooperation.
Sierra Leonean students in Cuba, Havana, Cuba
