Emergency aid of 300 euros, promised by the Ministry of Higher Education, will be paid this January to Mahorais students. She is greeted with relief in Reunion by the students, who nevertheless express the need for long-term help and psychological support.
Last Saturday, while Mayotte was on orange alert as Dikeledi approached, Mahorese students from Reunion met at Moufia. The goal: “Clarify and provide answers” regarding the emergency aid decided by the Ministry of Higher Education and Research to support them following the devastation of Chido in Mayotte.
This aid, amounting to 300 euros, will be paid this January to all students who can prove that their parents live in Mayotte, and without resource conditions.
“In a particularly trying economic and psychological context for these students, this aid aims to enable them to cope with unforeseen one-off expenses and to strengthen their autonomy with regard to their families already very mobilized by the management of the crisis in the archipelago.
Ministry of National Education, Higher Education and Research
Thus, scholarship students, already known to the CROUS, will receive this aid directly into their bank account. For others, you will need to complete an online form (available from January 13, 2025 on the CROUS website) and provide a school certificate, proof of parents' address, and a RIB.
Welcoming this essential one-off aid with relief, Mahorese students are however worried about the long term.
“We need help from the authorities in a sustainable way, because many of our young people here depend on their parents, who are now affected in Mayotte. If additional help can be provided in the long term it would be a good thing, to relieve them. Once they pay their rent they don't have much left“, means Lissilamou Toumbou, president of the Union of Mahorais students and pupils of Reunion.
Especially since “many still have no news from their parents, who lived in tin huts, legally but without the means to afford a house“, he describes.
“We are still waiting, doubting. There is a lot of fear and sadness because we don’t know what we can learn tomorrow.”
Lissilamou Toumbou, president of the Union of Mahorais students and pupils of Reunion
An observation which also highlights the need, in addition to financial assistance, for psychological assistance. “We launched a census, and many students expressed the need for psychological support“, argues Lissilamou Tombou.
A telephone platform has been set up by the government, for an initial contact with a psychologist, leading, depending on the case, to a physical appointment. “But we know that it is very complicated to have an appointment with a psychologist, so we would like to set up a physical office here with the help of the departmental council of Mayotte“, specifies the president of the Students' Union.
Kassim, in the third year of his economic and social administration degree, spent six days without news from his parents and brothers in Mayotte. “It was really traumatic. I was starting to tell myself that they were doing something wrong. Having a psychologist would have calmed me down“, he said.
Amina, a 1st year life sciences student, came this Saturday to learn about emergency aid arrangements. With only 214 euros in scholarships, and dependent on her mother to pay her rent, she finds herself in a delicate situation this month. “It's not enough to pay for my groceries, bills, etc. The 300 euros will help me a lot this month“, she whispers.
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©Adjaya Hoarau
Ouzali, a first-year English degree student, has been particularly affected since Chido's move to Mayotte. This aid of 300 euros will not even be used to finance his life in Reunion, or only very little, he confides.
“It had a big impact on my life because the cyclone devastated our house, everything was broken, and my family needs money to buy things. I manage with my purse. These 300 euros are very, very important to me because that I can give part of it to my family to buy back things that were broken there.”
Ouzali, 1st year English student
“This is an important help because with the cyclone, it is less weight. It allows you to pay for certain things that you would have paid for with the scholarship, but that you will not be able to pay because you helped your parents or you had additional costs because of the cyclone.“, also considers Saoudati, a third year student of Modern Literature.
Soifia Angareto, guidance counselor at the Mayotte delegation in Reunion, recalls the importance of helping Mahorean and Comorian students, whose parents sometimes have neither the time nor the means to repair their accommodation . “It's very hard for the students. Those who are there are lucky to be there, but their hearts are not there. We must hold on, they must not give up, they must succeed in their year to be able to return home tomorrow“, she finishes.
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