Ethiopian students benefiting from a Hungarian government scholarship complained about financial hardship and asked their government to support them to cater for their basic needs because their stipends are inadequate.
The students, numbering over 30, are beneficiaries of the Stipendium Hungaricum scholarship since last year and the programme is managed by Tempus Public Foundation. The beneficiaries currently receive monthly stipends of 130 euro for Masters Students and 450 euro for doctorate students from the Hungarian government.
But in an interview with the VOA Amharic, the student’s representative, Zelalem Hagos, decried the amount as insufficient given the high cost of living in Hungary. “After the joy of winning the scholarship, we were faced with real-life hustle. Especially the amount for master students, it is difficult to put our meals on our tables, let alone cover other expenses such as transportation and clothing. We are therefore pleading with our government to come to our aid,” he said.
The students have contacted the nearest Ethiopian Embassy which is in Geneva to voice their plights and Ethiopia’s Ambassador to the United Nations, Negash Kibret came in person to see their situations but the situation has not altered. Already six of them have either returned to Ethiopia or disappeared to other countries, he said. Mitiku Berecha, Head of the Foreign Relations & Scholarship Office at the Ministry of Education, the questions are legitimate and there have been similar complaints from other scholarship students in India, China, Turkey and Cuba. He said he would personally travel there on March 24 to have a meeting with the students and the body that gave the scholarship.