Posted on 19.04.2023 at 09:27 by Aly Asmane Ascofaré
Life for students in Mali is not always easy. For some, it is a real ordeal on a daily basis. Incursion to the university campus of Badalabougou.
Dirty toilets, bunk beds covered with clothes or lack of sleep, Malian students living on university campuses live a daily ordeal in silence. For fear of the social repercussions, few are those who agree to tell their experience.
Tuesday April 11, 2023, Badalabougou hill. Here is built the oldest university campus in Mali, that of the Faculty of Science and Technology. An imposing building in the shape of a ship, ironically called by its occupants “Titanic”. Reserved primarily for students from the regions, it has a capacity of more than 1,200 people divided between 180 rooms, or 4 to 8 students per room.
“Since obtaining my baccalaureate in 2019, I have lived here, since I have no relatives in Bamako. We live with 8 in a room that we each pay 10,000 CFA francs per year. There are rooms for 4 for 15,000 francs a year. It’s not easy to live crowded like this, but we have no choice. In addition we are confronted with the lack of water and electricity, ”explains a student who requested anonymity.
Like her, Youssouf Z. Fomba, a student from the center of the country, has been living in “difficulty” on campus for almost 2 years. He complains about the conditions of payment of scholarships, the annual amount of which, according to him, is 314,000 CFA francs for the entire scholarship. “It’s difficult for us, since we rely on this money to support us. Scholarships are not enough and, worse, they are given late. We spend 6 months without often, ”he laments. Faced with this situation, “we do odd jobs in town when we don’t have class. It’s the only way to survive,” said another student.
Among the difficulties, there is also the AEEM which, according to some, does not fairly distribute the donations offered to it. “The donations that are brought to us are rare and not everyone can benefit from them. Often there are 100 bags of rice and 100 bags of sugar, whereas on campus we have 180 rooms. It’s complicated to give to everyone, ”defends Aboubacar Sidiki Coulibaly, student at the FST and member of the AEEM Committee.
All these difficulties, according to the testimonies, make the campus a place that compromises the university career of more than one student.
2023-04-19 09:27:46
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