美国国家公共电台 NPR In Syria, A School Helps Children Traumatized By War

 

MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:

Now to Syria for a look at a U.S.-backed school for children traumatized by war and by ISIS. The program is in danger. It might not survive the Trump² administration's cuts in aid for Syria, and it could come down to donations from other countries or private individuals to keep it going. NPR's Tom Bowman visited the school and spoke³ with the children while he was traveling with the U.S. military in the Syrian city of Raqqa.

UNIDENTIFIED CHILD #1: (Speaking Arabic).

TOM BOWMAN, BYLINE⁴: This skinny boy says he's 12, though he looks years younger. He points to a crayon drawing he created this summer when he arrived at this child care center. It's mostly colored in black. There's a tank, an aircraft, a crude figure of a man with a wispy⁵ beard holding an oversized gun.

UNIDENTIFIED CHILD #1: (Through interpreter) This is when ISIS shelled my home. My sister and niece were killed just like that - two missiles.

BOWMAN: There's a red tongue of flame rising from the roof of his home.

UNIDENTIFIED CHILD #1: (Through interpreter) When the house was hit, the smoke was red like this.

BOWMAN: Therapists have known for decades a primary way young children communicate and comprehend trauma¹ is by drawing pictures. If that's true, these drawings on the wall are one collective scream. There are childish scrawls⁶ of beheadings, corpses⁷, planes dropping bombs. One small boy gestures to the picture he made. His eyes are pinched by burns. This school and 10 others like it is designed to ease the kids back into something like a normal life.

DEANIE HOLDER⁸: It's everything from art to music to sports.

BOWMAN: Deanie Holder is a State Department official who helps oversee⁹ the child care centers in northeast Syria, an area controlled by U.S. forces and its Kurdish and Arab allies.

HOLDER: What we've found is that the children had been so traumatized, they couldn't even recognize numbers and letters, so we had to work through that before we could actually start educating them again.

BOWMAN: The school's outer walls are painted with colorful toy bears and balloons. It sits just a block or two from piles of rubble¹⁰ and skeletons of buildings destroyed by ISIS booby traps and American airstrikes. There are about 500 kids here with space for hundreds more. We're not identifying any of the Syrians for security reasons.

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: (Speaking Arabic).

UNIDENTIFIED STUDENTS: (Speaking Arabic).

BOWMAN: A Syrian teacher instructs a small classroom, just seven boys and girls who never went to school during the years of war. She says the children were afraid to be inside any building or even on the roads. They just didn't feel safe because of the bombings and destruction they witnessed.

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: (Through interpreter) First, they were still carrying memories of the war, and they had lost people close to them. Some had lost their fathers. Some had lost both their parents.

BOWMAN: She points to two girls in the back of the room. One stares blankly at the floor, thumbing the pages in her book. The other covers her face with her hands, peering through a web of fingers at the visitors in the room.

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: (Through interpreter) They had an obvious case of social isolation¹¹.

BOWMAN: In the beginning, she says, they didn't talk to anyone at all.

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: (Through interpreter) Thankfully, they've recovered. They've adapted to the new place and adapted to their new friends.

BOWMAN: One boy in the class lost both his legs and sits in a wheelchair; another is 13 and lost his left hand.

UNIDENTIFIED CHILD #2: (Speaking Arabic).

BOWMAN: He and two other children were playing with a bomb. When it exploded, it killed both his friends. Deanie Holder says the schools like this in the area helping¹² these kids are part of a program that costs about $13 million in U.S. funds, but the money will run out in just four months.

HOLDER: We're working very hard with the international community to explain to him the many different ways that they could be involved in the education sector¹³.

BOWMAN: President Trump cut $200 million in aid. What impact did that have in your program?

HOLDER: Basically, part of the education programming money was tied up in the money that was stopped. So instead of having a full year coming up, I will basically end funding at the end of January.

BOWMAN: Holder says there's hope from other countries who are kicking in aid money. The United Arab Emirates gave $50 million but prefers the money is spent on projects like water and electricity. Saudi Arabia is providing $100 million, but it's uncertain whether it can be used for the schools. Private donations, officials say, can also help fill the gap. For $1.5 million, Holder says, she could renovate¹⁴ 100 schools. For about $5 million, the care centers could continue for another year.

UNIDENTIFIED STUDENTS: (Singing in Arabic).

BOWMAN: Whatever the fate of these schools, there are signs of hope. Girls in red and white uniforms perform a dance routine on a stage, and the boy who lost his hand in an explosion shows a picture he just drew in his notebook. It's a bouquet¹⁵ of flowers. And that boy whose black crayons pictured an ISIS fighter in the burning home the family left to flee to Lebanon - next to that one is a new and more vibrant¹⁶ drawing of his home.

UNIDENTIFIED CHILD #1: (Through interpreter) I was so happy I drew this. This is when we returned. We rebuilt our house, and now we are very happy.

BOWMAN: He draws the house in bold and bright colors - all yellow, orange, blue and red. Tom Bowman, NPR News, Raqqa, Syria.

1 trauma   

n.外伤，精神创伤

参考例句：

• Counselling is helping him work through this trauma.心理辅导正帮助他面对痛苦。
• The phobia may have its root in a childhood trauma.恐惧症可能源于童年时期的创伤。

2 trump   

n.王牌，法宝；v.打出王牌，吹喇叭

参考例句：

• He was never able to trump up the courage to have a showdown.他始终鼓不起勇气摊牌。
• The coach saved his star player for a trump card.教练保留他的明星选手，作为他的王牌。

3 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

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

4 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

5 wispy   

adj.模糊的；纤细的

参考例句：

• Grey wispy hair straggled down to her shoulders.稀疏的灰白头发披散在她肩头。
• The half moon is hidden behind some wispy clouds.半轮月亮躲在淡淡的云彩之后。

6 scrawls   

潦草的笔迹( scrawl的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• He scrawls, and no one can recognize what he writes. 他写字像鬼画符，没人能认出来。

7 corpses   

n.死尸，尸体( corpse的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The living soldiers put corpses together and burned them. 活着的战士把尸体放在一起烧了。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Overhead, grayish-white clouds covered the sky, piling up heavily like decaying corpses. 天上罩满了灰白的薄云，同腐烂的尸体似的沉沉的盖在那里。 来自汉英文学 - 中国现代小说

8 holder   

n.持有者，占有者；(台，架等)支持物

参考例句：

• The holder of the office of chairman is reponsible for arranging meetings.担任主席职位的人负责安排会议。
• That runner is the holder of the world record for the hundred-yard dash.那位运动员是一百码赛跑世界纪录的保持者。

9 oversee   

vt.监督，管理

参考例句：

• Soldiers oversee the food handouts.士兵们看管着救济食品。
• Use a surveyor or architect to oversee and inspect the different stages of the work.请一位房产检视员或建筑师来监督并检查不同阶段的工作。

10 rubble   

n.（一堆）碎石，瓦砾

参考例句：

• After the earthquake,it took months to clean up the rubble.地震后，花了数月才清理完瓦砾。
• After the war many cities were full of rubble.战后许多城市到处可见颓垣残壁。

11 isolation   

n.隔离，孤立，分解，分离

参考例句：

• The millionaire lived in complete isolation from the outside world.这位富翁过着与世隔绝的生活。
• He retired and lived in relative isolation.他退休后，生活比较孤寂。

12 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。

13 sector   

n.部门，部分；防御地段，防区；扇形

参考例句：

• The export sector will aid the economic recovery. 出口产业将促进经济复苏。
• The enemy have attacked the British sector.敌人已进攻英国防区。

14 renovate   

vt.更新，革新，刷新

参考例句：

• The couple spent thousands renovating the house.这对夫妇花了几千元来翻新房子。
• They are going to renovate the old furniture.他们准备将旧家具整修一番。

15 bouquet   

n.花束，酒香

参考例句：

• This wine has a rich bouquet.这种葡萄酒有浓郁的香气。
• Her wedding bouquet consisted of roses and ivy.她的婚礼花篮包括玫瑰和长春藤。

16 vibrant   

adj.震颤的，响亮的，充满活力的，精力充沛的，(色彩)鲜明的

参考例句：

• He always uses vibrant colours in his paintings. 他在画中总是使用鲜明的色彩。
• She gave a vibrant performance in the leading role in the school play.她在学校表演中生气盎然地扮演了主角。