As usual in life, there is a kind of truth that scathes the ear. It is provocative, daring and probably acerbic but still deserves to be said and heard.

The age old question of “is Ghana a country to die for?” is one that is lingering on the lips and minds of many private medical students in the Russian federation, Belarus and Ukraine. It is tongue – lashing, but these concerns are genuine, looking at the treatment that is being meted out to these students concerning their shipping allowance.

For years, government has assisted private medical students graduating who want to return to the mother land. Two years ago, the amount, which is the same for both scholarship and private medical students, was slashed into half of the original with no tangible reason to support it.

With reference to a letter responding to the call of NUGS-Russia as to the payment of the shipping allowance of graduands, students were shocked to the marrow when they were told through a communique from the embassy that the scholarship secretariat cannot foot the bills anymore; due to financial constraints and students were supposed to make their own arrangements to go home.

What makes this information more disheartening is the timing. The message came at the time when the final year students were preparing for their exams, putting most of them in a devastating mood.

We all know what happens when a person’s spirit is dampened. These students do not deserve this ill and inhuman treatment. We are talking of students who never received any help from the government in all their 6/7 years of study.

These students have paid their own fees, fed themselves and gone through the harsh conditions of living abroad and all they require of government is to show gratitude to the fact that they want to come home and serve.

These are the same students who are going to work in our hospitals back home unless somebody will like to tell us that the doctor-patient ratio in Ghana is now more than good so they can go look for a job in other African countries or elsewhere. We have tried all this while to refrain from comparing ourselves to students from other African countries in terms of financial support.

Difficult as it may seem, we are very much aware that our suffering means nothing until someone can relate their suffering to ours. We would like to use this medium to impress upon the government of the day, to come to the aid of these students to return home.

We are also calling on civil society, religious leaders, the media etc. to help us in our cause to get these students home.

Nana kwasi yeboah Jnr (press secretary NUGS-Russia) Website: www.NUGSRussia.com excutives@NUGSRussia.com