Haitian Students In Senegal For Free Education

Haitian Students In Senegal For Free Education

A group of 163 Haitian students arrived in Senegal on Wednesday to benefit from President Abdoulaye Wade's offer of free education in the aftermath of the earthquake that devastated their country earlier this year.

The group landed in Dakar on a Senegalese-chartered plane and were met by groups of traditional dancers and crowds of people chanting ‘Haiti, Haiti' , before being taken off for a ceremony.

‘Free men'

Wade, said in a speech to the students at the foot of a statue inaugurated earlier this year and named the ‘African Renaissance', that their ‘ancestors left here through the gate of no return on Goree Island' - referring to the island off the Senegalese coast which served as a transit point for thousands of Africans shipped to the Americas during the slave trade.

'' (Now) you are coming back to Africa, as free men, to come and study,'' he added.

‘Slowly rebuilt but there are still lots to do'

After the earthquake, which killed over 200,000 people, Wade proposed the creation of a new Africa state to resettle Haitians made homeless.

Wade has said that Senegal will pay for the students to complete their studies at three universities across the country.

''I thank Senegal and its entire people ... we are very proud of you," said a medical student who only gave her name as Sarah.

''The Haiti I left behind is being slowly rebuilt but there are still lots to do.''

Reuters/AyoKoya/Yinka