Mom relieved
Daughter who was studying in Ukraine among 21 students scheduled to arrive today
Amother on Tuesday said she felt as if 10,000 bricks have been lifted from her back after receiving confirmation that her daughter, who was attending university in war-torn Ukraine, is among 21 Jamaican students scheduled to arrive in the island today.
The students’ flight will land at Sangster International Airport in Montego Bay, St James.
“God is still God, and He is good. I just can’t wait for them to reach Jamaica,” the mother told the Jamaica Observer Tuesday night. “They are coming tomorrow (today), she added excitedly.
In a release Tuesday evening, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade Senator Kamina Johnson Smith said the students have been through “such an ordeal”, and as such the ministry is working with the relevant authorities at Sangster International Airport to facilitate their speedy clearance through Customs and Immigration on landing.
The ministry said the Government secured and paid for flights for the students.
The students, who had gone to Ukraine to study, found themselves in the middle of a deadly war after Russia invaded Ukraine early on February 24.
After taking cover in a bunker in the capital city, Kyiv, the students recalled hearing multiple explosions. Hours later, they boarded a train that took them to Lviv in Western Ukraine. They were supposed to be transported from Lviv to the Polish border by bus, but that plan was disrupted, forcing them to walk for nine hours.
Throughout the journey, they experienced winter-like conditions, with temperatures as low as 3°C. Two students eventually fell ill; one because of the cold. Eventually, they crossed the border on February 28.
The Observer was told that the students did COVID-19 tests on Tuesday, ahead of their flight today.
Nicole Senior, aunt to one of the students, told the Observer that she is now feeling relief for the first time in over a week.
“I slept well last night. My niece was tired, and her feet blistered, but [she is] alive and happy,” Senior said.
Though she anticipates her niece’s arrival today, up until 3:20 pm Tuesday she said she didn’t get the details about the flight or time of arrival.
At 7:28 pm, another parent told the Observer, “I really don’t know what time flight because them not saying.”
When the Observer inquired if the students were keeping it a secret, she responded, “Can I tell you!”
However, the woman said she was satisfied even not knowing. She recalled leaving her 20-year-old daughter in Ukraine one day before “hell broke loose”.
Her daughter is a graduate of Convent of Mercy Academy, Alpha, and was studying medicine at Kiev Medical University.
“You know why I felt so much? It is because I was just in Ukraine the day before all of this started. The place was so peaceful. But the kids were going to come home… dem did just want to collect their permit, so if anything, they could just go back.
“And their permit was going to be ready in four days’ time, and then they were coming home. I remember the look on my daughter’s face when I was leaving and I said to her, ‘Come with me,’ and she said, ‘Mommy, I’m waiting on the permit. I am going to come as I get it.’ That’s what happened,” she said.
Keisha Thomas, whose daughter, 20year-old Esther Thomas, returned to Jamaica just three days before Russia attacked Ukraine, told the Observer she is also relieved.
“We were fasting and praying because I was worried sick about her friends who were left there. Some of them were to leave the weekend after she left, but they couldn’t move after everything because the air space lock off,” she said.
“These are students I would be talking to on the phone to hear what their moms and parents were doing, and what their families were saying. We were all talking. Everybody wanted to get a sense of what’s happening,” Thomas said.
Meanwhile, Johnson Smith said transportation arrangements from the airport are also being made for those students whose families wish to utilise those services.