The assistant director in the Department of Student Placement and Welfare, Mosoma Kgotla has confirmed that a Motswana student on the Caribbean island of Grenada was airlifted to Trinidad and Tobago (T&T) for medical attention. The student, whose name has been withheld, is said to have had a ruptured appendix.
Grenada sustained heavy damage - including to its hospital - as a result of Hurricane Ivan last Tuesday. However, Kgotla said the health condition of the student has nothing to do with the hurricane. "Our office in Washington has confirmed that our students are safe," he said, and further pointed out that the Botswana Consul in Jamaica is monitoring the situation.He added that there was panic amongst students who wanted to be relocated to the United States. "It is natural that there would be a state of panic but even then it was not safe to travel," he said. He said some students had gone to Barbados on voluntary evacuation.
According to Kgotla, the school in Grenada was closed temporarily and it is expected to re-open on September 29. Kgotla said since the storm passed, authorities on the island have been working round the clock to clear things so that the situation can return to normal.
There are 18 Batswana students in Jamaica; six in Florida; 10 in Cuba and another 10 in Grenada. These are the islands that were affected by Hurricane Ivan.
A T&T Defence Force emergency flight spokesman explained that another student brought the ailing student to Pt Saline Airport on a stretcher on Saturday afternoon, trying to get a flight out.
Defence Force officers who had been assisting T&T nationals and journalists seeking to leave Grenada since earlier that morning, took charge of the situation.
They put the student on a 12-seater T&T Coast Guard plane, which had arrived that afternoon with officers and supplies.
The spokesman said an elderly couple, who had been listed to return to T&T on the flight, gave up their seats to allow the student to be flown to T&T.
