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(单词翻译:双击或拖选)
After a decade of war, quake that struck northwest Syria made a bad situation worse
NPR's A Martinez speaks with Kieren Barnes of Mercy Corps2 about the earthquake and relief efforts in northwestern Syria.
A MART?NEZ, HOST:
The United States Treasury3 Department says that it will issue a license4 permitting earthquake aid to arrive in Syria that would have otherwise been prohibited by U.S. sanctions. According to the United Nations, northwestern Syria is home to about 1.8 million displaced people who are already suffering from more than a decade of war - and now this. Among the international aid groups on the ground is Mercy Corps. I spoke5 earlier by Skype with the group's Syria country director, Kieren Barnes, and he told me about the particular challenges of providing earthquake relief in the area.
KIEREN BARNES: It's a very cut-off, isolated6 pocket of Syria. The infrastructure7 is very weak. So even just trying to make calls with them on the first few days was hard. The electricity was out, the internet, the phone lines. So most of this week has been about gathering8 information and doing kind of bare minimum at this point.
MART?NEZ: And what kind of information are you hearing from your colleagues?
BARNES: So we have about 45 staff who are actually based in northwest Syria. Many of them have been affected9 personally, and sadly, some of them have lost their wives and children in this disaster. But those who are able to work are going out to the communities. They've seen lots of people sleeping in cars, people standing10 next to rubble11 and hearing their family members stuck inside, but there's nothing they can do for them. They don't have the same level of heavy machinery12 or expertise13. So that's been extremely difficult.
And then on top of that, it's the winter. So it's freezing conditions, snowing. People are homeless. The heating supplies are not good enough and not good quality. People are burning rubbish just to stay warm. So it's - and it's also very confusing. I think that's the other factor. Especially in the first few hours with the aftershocks, people were confused. They didn't know where to go, they didn't know where to stay and what was the safest thing for them and their families.
MART?NEZ: The U.N. aid convoy14 crossed into northwest Syria for the first time since the earthquake hit on Monday. How much do you think this will help the people that really need it?
BARNES: That supply line is absolutely critical to this response. Normally, we only have a few crossing points into Turkey and one that is designated that the U.N. can use. That's not enough in normal times, but particularly with this earthquake, we are going to need a lot of supplies coming in. Most of the organizations, including ourselves, we have some preposition kits15. So we have 1,700 kits that we're able to distribute now. We've managed to procure16 another 800 hygiene17 kits and 150 shelter kits.
But eventually, those supplies are going to run out - maybe in a matter of days and certainly in weeks. So we need both the humanitarian18 aid to be flowing through with the U.N., but we also need the commercial sector19 to be running as well so that we can procure directly inside Syria and deliver to people on the ground.
MART?NEZ: Does Turkey need to open up more crossing points, or is security just too touchy20 of a situation there?
BARNES: It's a very difficult political issue, and I think it's for all parties involved who have been involved in this conflict to make it possible for us to access people and the supplies that we need.
MART?NEZ: Can you help our listeners understand just how challenging the situation is for aid workers in Syria after more than a decade of war?
BARNES: Absolutely. I mean, our teams are incredibly resilient. I mean, they've been through a lot from the last 12 years, and to be honest, in the last 12 months. We've been dealing21 with the impacts of the conflict in Ukraine, the lack of food that's been provided in northwest Syria, and then more recently, cholera22 just before winter - dealing with all these crises, one after another after another. And then there are people who are displaced inside northwest Syria multiple times, constantly moving with their families in temporary shelter. The earthquake on Monday is particularly acute. It's - you know, within minutes people's lives have changed, and our teams are having to respond to that. But they themselves have also been affected by it.
We can't bring in people into the area. That's one of the biggest difficulties. We can't kind of fly in lots of specialists to this. This is Syrians helping23 Syrians on the ground. And I don't think we have the full picture yet. And we're certainly moving more into the humanitarian phase where we need to provide for those who have survived. And we need to think about their shelter, their food, their water, and to keep them warm. And that's going to be the priority now, I think.
MART?NEZ: What does Mercy Corps need the most to effectively do its work right now?
BARNES: We certainly need the international community to step up. Syria has fallen out of the spotlight24. So we need the finances that we can then go and purchase things inside Syria and start responding. We're looking at things like water supply to the camps where we work, which have been damaged. Soil is seeping25 in. It's contaminating the water. We need to address those issues immediately, and we need the funding to do that.
MART?NEZ: And is that how people here in the U.S. can help with this situation in Syria and Turkey?
BARNES: Absolutely. I think it's the fastest way to respond. Money moves quickly, obviously, and we can get that into Syria and our teams can go out and work with local suppliers. We have engineers. We need to recruit more staff, to be honest, on the ground and to get them working. So this is the most urgent thing that we need right now.
MART?NEZ: That's Kieren Barnes, Syrian country director for Mercy Corps. Kieren,thanks.
BARNES: Thanks.
1 transcript | |
n.抄本,誊本,副本,肄业证书 | |
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2 corps | |
n.(通信等兵种的)部队;(同类作的)一组 | |
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3 treasury | |
n.宝库;国库,金库;文库 | |
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4 license | |
n.执照,许可证,特许;v.许可,特许 | |
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5 spoke | |
n.(车轮的)辐条;轮辐;破坏某人的计划;阻挠某人的行动 v.讲,谈(speak的过去式);说;演说;从某种观点来说 | |
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6 isolated | |
adj.与世隔绝的 | |
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7 infrastructure | |
n.下部构造,下部组织,基础结构,基础设施 | |
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8 gathering | |
n.集会,聚会,聚集 | |
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9 affected | |
adj.不自然的,假装的 | |
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10 standing | |
n.持续,地位;adj.永久的,不动的,直立的,不流动的 | |
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11 rubble | |
n.(一堆)碎石,瓦砾 | |
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12 machinery | |
n.(总称)机械,机器;机构 | |
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13 expertise | |
n.专门知识(或技能等),专长 | |
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14 convoy | |
vt.护送,护卫,护航;n.护送;护送队 | |
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15 kits | |
衣物和装备( kit的名词复数 ); 成套用品; 配套元件 | |
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16 procure | |
vt.获得,取得,促成;vi.拉皮条 | |
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17 hygiene | |
n.健康法,卫生学 (a.hygienic) | |
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18 humanitarian | |
n.人道主义者,博爱者,基督凡人论者 | |
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19 sector | |
n.部门,部分;防御地段,防区;扇形 | |
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20 touchy | |
adj.易怒的;棘手的 | |
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21 dealing | |
n.经商方法,待人态度 | |
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22 cholera | |
n.霍乱 | |
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23 helping | |
n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的,辅助的 | |
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24 spotlight | |
n.公众注意的中心,聚光灯,探照灯,视听,注意,醒目 | |
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25 seeping | |
v.(液体)渗( seep的现在分词 );渗透;渗出;漏出 | |
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