Foreign Exchange Students Beware!

MNDEE

JF-Expert Member
Jul 10, 2009
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Hii issue iko CNN nimekopy sehemu ya taarifa inayohusu Exchange Students na yaliyowakuta USA. Iwe ni fundisho kwa wale wanaodaka hizi grants or scholarships bila kuzichunguza kwa kina.

Exchange students live American nightmare - CNN.com

"Five young foreign exchange students found themselves caught in a nightmare of neglect, malnourishment and abandonment by those supposed to protect them. Now those five -- natives of countries stretching from Norway to Tanzania to Colombia -- are back home telling friends of a different America than they expected...'
inaendelea ...

..... they were treated kind of crudely ...not provided the proper food, hygiene and things of that nature. And the areas they were placed? ... one of the students was placed in a home with a convicted felon -- convicted of drug trafficking or drug offenses..."
 
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What happened to them is a crime/ And steps are being taken to redress the injustice.
 
Na wakija huku kwetu twa jaribu kuwa make as comfortable as humanly possible, sana sana kama wana mihela.. lakini tukienda kwao, racism yajitokeza and they dont give a crap about us. Am sure wale exchange walikuja Africa enjoyed their visit and made many friends, while the Foreign exchange students were treated inhumanely. How is it possible to be hosted by a convicted fellon, considering the fact that you are new in that country?
 
Tanzanian student back home from nightmare visit to US


THISDAY REPORTER & AGENCIES
Dar es Salaam

A TANZANIAN student who was part of a group of foreign exchange students subjected to nightmare conditions in the United States has narrated how he was mistreated by his host and left malnourished.

Secondary school student Musa Mpulki, who recently returned home, spent nine months in the US under a controversial student exchange programme.

In an interview with CNN before he left the US for home, Musa said he did not want to upset his mother, so he never told her that he had little to eat during his stay in the home of a 72-year-old American man who had put up signs on his refrigerator saying some food was only for family.

Musa was among a group of exchange students who were placed in deplorable conditions in the US state of Pennsylvania, with some becoming malnourished or living in buildings strewn with dog faeces.

Prosecutors in the US say the amount of neglect inflicted upon the high school students merits criminal charges being brought against those responsible.

The Deputy District Attorney for Lackawanna County in Pennsylvania, Michelle Olshefski, said an investigation has confirmed that foreign exchange students from Tanzania and elsewhere were placed in unsuitable homes by a former employee of Aspect Foundation, a San Francisco, California-based non-profit organisation that brings about 1,000 exchange students into the US each year.

’’The DA’s (district attorney’s) office is convinced that criminal activity occurred, that there was a pattern of criminal neglect and a pattern of placing these children in danger, not only of physical harm but emotional and psychological harm,’’ said Olshefski, who heads the special victims unit.

’’We believe that criminal charges are warranted,’’ she added.

The former area coordinator with Aspect Foundation, Edna Burgette, was fired after allegations surfaced in May this year of the malnourished students living in houses in Scranton, Pennsylvania whose floors were covered with dog faeces.

Burgette was paid $400 for each student she placed under the exchange programme. The scandal involved as many as 12 exchange students from Tanzania, Vietnam, Nigeria, Denmark, Colombia, Norway and France.

In May this year, 17-year-old exchange student Nicklas Schreyer from Denmark - who was sent to Pennsylvania to spend a school year at a local high school - explained how he quickly discovered things weren�t the way Aspect Foundation had promised.

He shared a small bedroom with the exchange student from Tanzania. He was threatened with being sent back to Denmark when he broke a house rule, such as leaning on the dinner table.

After about a month, Schreyer called his mother in Denmark, who reached out to the authorities for help.

The treatment of Schreyer and his Tanzanian room mate Musa, along with at least 10 other exchange students in various parts of Pennsylvania, has become the subject of an official investigation by local officials and the US Department of State.

But although his housing situation in the US was a nightmare, Musa said the students at the school where he was attached made him appreciate America, and that he appreciated the State Department grant that brought him to the US.

’’I guess I like to say, ’Thank you very much the Government of the United States for bringing me here to get a good experience at the school and a good education,’ ’’he told CNN.

According to media reports from the US, Musa and the other foreign students found themselves caught up in a nightmare of neglect, malnourishment and abandonment by those supposed to protect them.

’’We at the Department of State recognize [because we] are responsible for this programme, we have to make sure we are aggressively overseeing this programme and make sure the children are well-suited,’’ said State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley.

’’This is a programme that is very important to the Department of State,’’ Crowley said. ’’We are taking 15- to 18-year-old children. We are introducing them to the United States. We are trying to put our best foot forward. We recognize in this incident in Scranton and also elsewhere around the country we have failed to do so.’’

What happened in Scranton, according to Lackawanna County District Attorney Andrew Jarbola, was a crime. He has convened a grand jury to look into the families where some of the 12 students who came to Scranton were placed, as well as the company which placed them there and its officials.

’’In my opinion they (students) were treated kind of crudely,’’ Jarbola said. ’’Not provided with proper food, hygiene and things of that nature. And the areas they were placed? I know one of the students was placed in a home with a convicted felon - convicted of drug trafficking or drug offences - and that is very disturbing to me,’’ Jarbola said.

He added that some students were so malnourished that one was treated in hospital for dehydration while another passed out during physical exercises at school.

’’They weren’t provided with food,’’ Jarbola said. ’’In fact, there is one incident with tape on food items in the refrigerator of the host family that says, ’Do not touch. This is for the host family only.’ So basically they were neglected.’’

The company that placed the students first denied any problems existed, then said it had corrected them and fired those responsible. The families who housed the students said the allegations are untrue. But the students themselves tell a different story.

The San Francisco-based Aspect Foundation sponsored all 12 of the Scranton students, some of whom were on State Department grants. On its website, the Aspect Foundation says it began in 1985 as ’’a small non-profit organization offering affordable, study-abroad opportunities to students from around the world.’’

In 2008, the State Department gave 17 placement groups $39.4m in taxpayer funds to manage programmes involving exchange students. Aspect received $1.08m of those funds.
 
Inasikitisha kweli, wanafunzi wanaenda kwenye FESP halafu wanakutana na matatizo kama haya.. Huyo Musa Mpulki atakuwa balozi mzuri kutoa ushuhuda kwa kilichowapata huko nchi ya watu. Yaani bora Afrika maisha ya hali ya chini lakini tunaishi vizuri..
Tena watu wengine wakisikia marekani na uingereza ndo wanajua hizo ndo ulimwengu za kila kitu na kuona zingine hamna kitu..
Hao wazungu nao wakiwa wanakuja kwenye FESP tusiwashobokee na kuwaona wa maana..Pole zao hao vijana kwakweli ila wameijua marekani angalau!
 
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