Twenty one- year old, Greatrest Mengo has appealed to her father Christopher Mengo Siame, a businessman of Mbala District to help her get out of India.
The Medical Laboratory Technology Student at Maharish Makandeshwar University (MMU) in India says she owes 7,000 Thousand form of accommodation and tuition forcing her to be on the street illegally for three years now.
Mengo says being a girl on the street illegally is the worst untold form of torture urging Zambians to be financially sound before day dreaming about education abroad.
Meanwhile, at least 40 Zambian students are stranded in various parts of India for various reasons.
Zambia’s High Commissioner to India Judith Kapijimpanga says most students are stranded because of their parents’ failure to sustain payment of school fees, while some have committed offences such as drug abuse and a number have failed examinations but are scared of informing their parents.
Mrs. Kapijimpanga says the students cannot leave the airports because it is a requirement in India that their schools issue them with NO Objection Travel Certificates which indicate that they complied with Indian laws, forcing many to start engaging in negative vices for them to survive.
She says it is strange that most parents simply send their children to private universities in India without informing the Mission but only get to know when students have been arrested or have failed to pay school fees.
Mrs. Kapijimpanga says at least 300 Zambian students are documented to be in India studying in various institutions of higher learning.
She has urged Zambian parents to consult the Zambian Mission in New Delhi on education services in India before sending their children especially that government colleges in Zambia are now far cheaper than troubling innocent souls on a foreign soil.
This is contained in a statement made available by First Secretary Press and Tourism at the Zambian Mission in New Delhi, India, Bangwe Navile
This is what we call “boasting na njala”.Why send your own child abroad for school when you know too well that you cannot afford?Our colleges and Universities are even far much better than those in India.This is a very sad news and we can only appeal to president Edgar Lungu to help these innocent souls with logistics so that they can return home as soon as possible!!Govnt should also close the agencies which are shipping Zambian students abroad and giving them fake hopes that they will find jobs there to raise extra money to pay bills when infact not!!Zambian parents should only be sending their children to European and American universitie and not to India or China!!
Even South Africa have good universities with flexible payment plans. Why do you people send your kids to China and India? Zambians are very gullible everything is China etc
DO you not know that those countries offer scholarships?
It’s a pity the PF government has neglected CBU and UNZA. CBU and UNZA are comatose now at the hands of Luo and her partner in crime, Lungu. If these universities where properly and timely funded, they would be at a good level to compete internationally. This would prevent desperate parents sending their children abroad in the hope the children would complete their studies in time and earn a decent qualification.
I thought this ambassador Kapijimpanga had any brains but she is clearly very stupid …I hope Ministry of Foreign Affairs reprimand her..I mean how do you let a student plead to her parents on camera like that…your job is to do things in the background…what a silly woman she is…she is even sat there like a fat frog in the corner.
@Jay Jay
Simply she want to discredit her parents (student’s)
Am also very disappointed with kabijimpanga
Jay Jay, how come you are not aware that many of our Politicians and Politicians do not have an idea of the ‘animal’ called “Privacy”. If you go on Facebook you will find people even showing corpses complete with faces. You can see how serious our situation is, if you can see instantly that it is not proper to act like that yet she STILL does not know that it is not right to do things the way she did. Worse still no one Government sees anything odd. She would have still cautioned the general public but would protect personal details of the people especially the parents.
@ Jay Jay- the father to that girl is UPND something in Mbala District, she is trying to embarrass the parent but forgeting that it is also a failure to our government when it comes to provide proper education in Zambia, CBU cant pay lecturers ba UNZA kaya kaya
This makes a very sad reading. But why go to India for Biomedical sciences and yet for a diploma we have Evelyn Hone College, Ndola College of Biomedical sciences and Chikankata college of Biomedical sciences. For a degree in Biomedical sciences we have The University of Zambia. I know even locally, students have problems in paying fees. I would rather struggle locally than go and humiliate myself in a foreign land.
Jay Jay. Is there any part in this story indicating that those stranded students were on scholarship? I thought you knew how to read….
Judith Kapijimanga should be more humane and stop humiliating people facing financial hardships. Nothing wrong with a young person aspiring to study abroad especially that UNZA is constantly under funded and has massive rates of illegal closures.
It a syndrome of being ‘abroad ‘. Zambians think everything abroad is fantastic. Of all places being stranded in a smog filled smelly place like India is not a thing I would wish even on my worst enemy. People defecate anywhere, the filth and dirty is of the scale.
“Mrs. Kapijimpanga says the students cannot leave the airports because it is a requirement in India that their schools issue them with NO Objection Travel Certificates which indicate that they complied with Indian laws, forcing many to start engaging in negative vices for them to survive.”
That is a blatant violation of human rights on behalf of the Indian government and they should be taken to task for this and sued for damages.
chimbwi no plan
The father to this girl claims he is in constant contact with the daughter and sends money to her every month
It is not necessary for a girl to appeal to you father in public,it is disrespectful.Some countries do help their citizen when in trouble,I know Zambia is not one of them.This is due to selfishness and dishonest.The father had good plans for the daughter.Amenshi bapima no bunga.
THINGS DONT ADD UP HERE,THIS Greatrest Mengo IS OBVIOUSLY A TONGA HER SURNAME COULD BE MWEEMBA HOW CAN YOU BE IN THE STREET FOR 3 YRS WITHOUT BEING PREGNANT? WHY CAN THE TONGA FATHER FAIL TO PAY 7000 KWACHA WHEN HE HAS MORE MONEY IN HIS POCKETS UNDER THE ABLE LEADERSHIP OF HIS EXCELLENCY ECL? IN ZAMBIA MINIMUM WAGE IS 10000KWACHA SO HOW THE FATHER CAN FAIL TO PAY? SHE NEEDS A GREAT REST FROM SCHOOL I BELIEVE
The difference between developed nations and poor ones is that developed ones will do something about a need while the poor ones just sit and watch. Surely that lady can appeal to her boss ECL to make sure this citizen is taken care of, no need of condemnations just help