Students from Zimbabwe which are studying in Russia under the presidential scholarship have reportedly resorted into prostitution due to the failure of Zimbabwean government to pay for their annual stipends.
According to New Zimbabwe.com, some of the students, most of them from poor backgrounds, said that they had gone for over a year without any financial support from their government.
“I have proof that lots of girls have resorted to prostitution and when I say proof, I mean actual video footage of some of the girls at night,” the student was cited as saying.
Early this week, a student leader Hubert Nyabadza urged the Zimbabwe’s Minister of Higher Education Jonathan Moyo to intervene.
In a post on Moyo’s twitter page, Nyabadza accused government of doing nothing while the students’ situation deteriorated.
Nyabadza wrote: “We are starving Sir, some of us want to go back home.”
Zimbabwe has agreements with a number of countries in Africa and overseas to send underprivileged students for studies under various scholarship schemes.
However, President Robert Mugabe’s administration has failed to “honour its end of the deal” due to the country’s economic hardships.