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Moscow – "Starving" Zimbabwean students studying under the presidential scholarship in Russia have reportedly resorted to prostitution to cover basic living expenses after government failed to pay their annual stipends.
According to New Zimbabwe.com, some of the students, most of them from poor backgrounds, said that they had gone for over a year without any financial support from government.
One of the students was quoted as saying that some of her colleagues had since resorted to prostitution for survival.
"I have proof that lots of girls have resorted to prostitution and when I say proof, I mean actual video footage of some of the girls at night," the student was cited as saying.
Early this week, a student leader Hubert Nyabadza urged the Minister of Higher Education Jonathan Moyo to intervene.
In a post on Moyo's twitter page, Nyabadza accused government of doing nothing while the students' situation deteriorated.
Nyabadza wrote: "We are starving Sir, some of us want to go back home."
Zimbabwe has agreements with a number of countries in Africa and overseas to send underprivileged students for studies under various scholarship schemes.
However, President Robert Mugabe's administration has failed to "honour its end of the deal" due to the country's economic hardships.
