Parents of students in Cuba heard Public Service Minister Jennifer Westford confirm yesterday that their children could not come home for the holidays because there were no available flights until October. However, arrangements had been made for them to be refunded their money from the Jim Bacchus Travel Service.
Minister Westford repeated what the parents had been told on Friday that all the airlines were fully booked until October. A number of parents said that the travel service was no longer responsible for getting the students home and they had been informed at the meeting that they should return to the travel service’s office with their receipts to have their money refunded.
Parents who had managed to make private arrangements for their children to return during this holiday were asked to inform the minister and supply her with a copy of the ticket so she could see the date of arrival and date of departure to ensure that the students would return to Cuba in time for the start of the semester.
One parent told Samuel Abdool, President of the Guyana-Cuba Friendship Society, that it had come to her knowledge that his daughter who was one of the stranded students had been provided with a flight and would be coming home for the holiday. At this many parents spoke out complaining that it wasn’t fair.
Another parent told this newspaper that they had been asked to book seats since last December and had been told by Abdool that the end of January was the deadline. She explained that when she contacted the travel service she had been told that the booking deadline was December and not January.
“From the inception it didn’t sound authentic,” the woman said, “so I didn’t book my son’s flight with the group.” Her son would be travelling home tomorrow. In an email to his mother the young man said: “…the place is like a ghost town and everyone is depressed… my flight is all ready for me to leave… I can’t enjoy myself because my friends are being left behind.”
Just to get home for the holiday the young man will have to travel from Havana, Cuba to Montego Bay, Jamaica then to Kingston, Jamaica to get on another flight bound for Barbados and finally to Georgetown.
Minister Westford attempted to assure the parents that although their children would be initially depressed they were otherwise happy. “Has anyone here been to Cuba?” She asked those present at the meeting. When an individual responded she said, “Tell them about Cuba then.”
A list of some fourteen Cuban scholarship students who failed their examination arrived during the meeting.
“Yes, fourteen students failed but we are not sure what it is they failed,” Minister Westford told the parents yesterday. However, the names of the students were not revealed. The parents were told that if their child’s name was on the list then this would be communicated to them. “If you don’t hear from us then it’s not your child,” she said.
The Public Service minister explained that the students were required to do a Philosophy course and many didn’t like that area of study; she is hoping that was what they failed.
As the meeting wore on parents took the opportunity to ask the minister about other matters. Parents were informed that their children were now allowed to take a laptop computer with them to Cuba; however, she advised them not to post it.
The minister also suggested that the parents give their children cellular phones connected to the roaming service provided by the phone companies because it would make it easier to access them in cases such as this. However, she reminded parents to ensure their children understood that the phone was for communicating home and should not be abused.
Also among the things discussed at yesterday’s meeting was the issue of female students getting pregnant and having to return home where abortions were done. The minister told parents that the students sent to Cuba were well behaved and this was the only problem they had.
While the students could have abortions in Cuba this could only be done with her permission which she would not give. She told parents that when the woman returned home it was up to the family to decide whether or not an abortion should be done.
Once the student was able to return to Cuba within two weeks, the minister said, they were allowed to return. She said that she would sign the necessary documents because it could be that it was just a mistake on that student’s part and they could still do well in life. “We don’t mind if we have to tell a little untruth,” Westford said. The minister said that they would make an excuse to the Cubans so the student could come home for the two weeks and have the matter sorted out.
The Jim Bacchus Travel Service had been heavily criticized by parents at the meeting of the Guyana-Cuba Friendship Society at the Queen’s College Auditorium on Friday which was held to apprise the parents of the situation regarding their children’s travelling arrangements.
Many parents had erupted in anger while some were reduced to tears after learning that flight arrangements for their children had not been properly made and their children might not make it home for the holidays.
The arrangements covered 212 students, who were returning home for the first time in two years. However, instead of all the students journeying to Barbados on one flight, as had been the understanding, it was discovered that arrangements had been made for them to travel in five batches. And while flights had been booked from Havana to Barbados, no arrangements had been made to get them from Barbados to Georgetown. The parents had paid $158,000 for each student.
The students were to have left Havana tomorrow morning arriving here in the afternoon.
