Help needed. Some months ago, the mother of a 40 year old student passed away and he needed money for his four day jour…

Help needed.

Some months ago, the mother of a 40 year old student passed away and he needed money for his four day journey home. A few people got together to help. That’s settled. But now, it’s about reimbursing one student USD200 of his scholarship money, which he used to help that other student to go home.

I’ll explain.

The student is from Congo, the only one from there. He had a sponsor (based in Kenya) that helped him to get to #Tareem alone. Once there, he lived on basics with support from the school such as food, books and other minor expenses. He has four children and adopted another four, all based back home.

When his mother passed away, he had to return to sort things out. One challenge came after another. The school was working their way to help him out, but didn’t inform him until they could confirm things on their end. This is good, except that from his view, he felt more and more helpless.

For the four day journey home, he needed USD200 to cover travel expenses including Upon Entry Visas required in neighboring African countries. So we were working to help him find this money. Mind you, this is a lot of money for students. USD170 is what students pay the school for food and lodging, per year. Tuition fees range around USD350, per year.

FYI, students who want to leave the country need an Exit Visa. Once issued, you have to leave the country in fourteen days. After he got his Exit Visa, he went to the travel agent to set a date for his return ticket to Sana’a (Yemen) and then Kenya – and then travel by land to Uganda and then Congo.

Cut the long story short, the agent said his ticket has been cancelled sometime ago, by someone in Kenya through the agent there that purchased the original tickets. So now, he has to leave the country in four days, he has no ticket, nor money for the travel expenses. I was advised to stay away from him and not make mention about it.

So one student said he’ll front his own scholarship money, full amount USD200, with the two conditions, 1 – that I (Zain) will assist for it to be reimbursed later* AND, 2 – that the Congolese student does not know that the money came from him. So we passed the money to the Head of the East African students group (who happens to be my personal friend/tutor) and that was that.

*Note. We agreed then that if I am unable to raise the money, he’ll forego the matter.

We were told days later the school paid for his flight ticket back and during which the last phone call from him came from Tanzania. With the new tickets, his route changed to Tanzania and then Rwanda, before Congo.

So now, I am collecting USD180 only as the exchange rates have changed, so 180 ought to be a safe figure.

If you’re interested to donate an amount, send me a private message.
If you have any questions, to verify or understand, send me a private message.

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