VOA慢速英语--为非法入境儿童提供衣物、书籍的团体

Group Providing Clothing, Books to Migrant Children

A committee of the United States Senate is studying the Trump¹ administration’s “zero tolerance²” policy for migrant families. The policy is directed at individuals who crossed the U.S. border with Mexico. Those who entered the U.S. illegally were detained³. The children were held separately from their parents.

On June 20, President Donald Trump signed an order cancelling the family separations after a series of protests across the country.

Last week, a federal judge credited the government with reuniting more than 1,800 children with their parents or guardians⁴. But the judge also said the government is responsible for expelling⁵ the parents of more than 400 children without reuniting those families.

The boys and girls have been living in shelters in Texas and three other states. They are receiving backpacks filled with clothing, books and other supplies from Comfort Cases, a non-profit group in Maryland.

Rob Scheer is the founder⁶ of the group.

“We have children who have walked into our country that needed us. They need us.”

Scheer says he and his husband Reece set up Comfort Cases in 2013 partly because of his experience as a child in the U.S. foster⁷ care system. Today, the group serves about 39 states, Washington, D.C. and U.S. territories, including Puerto Rico.

Scheer says their hope is to give a child that “sense of dignity” and to provide the children with something to hold their possessions. Children living in foster care are often moved from home to home, and many have only a plastic bag to hold their few belongings⁸.

As a child, Scheer had to move his belongings the same way. Some 40 years later, he and his husband agreed to accept four children from the foster care system as members of their family.

Migrant children

Once Scheer heard about the family separations, he called his team and volunteers and said they could not just sit back and watch what was happening.

“At the end of the day, I don't walk in the shoes of their parents. I can't tell you the reasons why they came to the border or why they entered our country. The only thing that I can tell you is that they're here. And these children need us.”

Marli Abramowitz is a volunteer at Comfort Cases. Abramowitz said as soon as news about the separations began to spread, the team prepared and shipped backpacks to McAllen, Texas.

“For the migrant kids, we have special stuffed animals that were made by a woman who donated, I think, a thousand of them...They also get a Spanish book and an English book, or they get a book that's half Spanish, half English.”

In 2017, Comfort Cases donated 11,000 backpacks. This year, that number is set to hit 14,000.

Linda Walker, who has been volunteering with the nonprofit for the past six months, said she immediately felt the group had an important job.

It had to overcome some administrative⁹ problems to reach the children, she explained, but hopes the backpacks hold “everyday necessities,” as well as the message that the migrants are welcome here.

“It’s something that could have been avoided, Now they don’t have their parents. It’s going to be a hard journey to get them back. You can’t rip¹⁰ children away from their parents. It’s unacceptable."

I’m Susan Shand.

Words in This Story

tolerance – n. ability to overcome pain or hardship

migrant – n. someone who moves from place to place, usually to find work

backpack – n. a piece of equipment designed to carry things on one’s back

foster care – n. a situation in which a child lives with and is cared for by people who are not the child’s parents

dignity – n. the quality of being worthy¹¹ of respect

charity – n. a group that hel

1 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。

2 tolerance   

n.宽容；容忍，忍受；耐药力；公差

参考例句：

• Tolerance is one of his strengths.宽容是他的一个优点。
• Human beings have limited tolerance of noise.人类对噪音的忍耐力有限。

3 detained   

留住( detain的过去式和过去分词 )； 耽搁； 拘留； 扣留

参考例句：

• One man has been detained for questioning. 一个男人被拘留审问。
• He was kidnapped and briefly detained by a terrorist group. 他被一个恐怖组织绑架并短暂拘禁。

4 guardians   

监护人( guardian的名词复数 )； 保护者，维护者

参考例句：

• Farmers should be guardians of the countryside. 农民应是乡村的保卫者。
• The police are guardians of law and order. 警察是法律和秩序的护卫者。

5 expelling   

驱逐( expel的现在分词 )； 赶走； 把…除名； 排出

参考例句：

• Catholic Spain had, by expelling its Jews, achieved the spiritual security of a united church. 信奉天主教的西班牙人在逐出犹太人后，统一了教会，在精神上获得了安全感。
• Expelling wind and cold pathogens, relieving exterior syndrome and clearing away heat. 疏风散寒，迅速缓解风寒感冒症状。

6 Founder   

n.创始者，缔造者

参考例句：

• He was extolled as the founder of their Florentine school.他被称颂为佛罗伦萨画派的鼻祖。
• According to the old tradition,Romulus was the founder of Rome.按照古老的传说，罗穆卢斯是古罗马的建国者。

7 foster   

vt.收养，培养，促进；adj.收养的，收养孩子的

参考例句：

• Nowadays young couple sometimes foster.现今年轻夫妇有时领养别人的孩子。
• The captain did his best to foster a sense of unity among the new recruits.队长尽力培养新成员之间的团结精神。

8 belongings   

n.私人物品，私人财物

参考例句：

• I put a few personal belongings in a bag.我把几件私人物品装进包中。
• Your personal belongings are not dutiable.个人物品不用纳税。

9 administrative   

adj.行政的，管理的

参考例句：

• The administrative burden must be lifted from local government.必须解除地方政府的行政负担。
• He regarded all these administrative details as beneath his notice.他认为行政管理上的这些琐事都不值一顾。

10 rip   

n.拉裂，破绽，激流，浪荡子；vt.撕裂，激昂地说，贬损；vi.裂开，仓促地冲过...

参考例句：

• He had seen the rip in the book.他看到了书里的裂缝。
• I tried not to rip the paper as I unwrapped it.我把纸打开的时候，尽量不把它撕破。

11 worthy   

adj.(of)值得的，配得上的；有价值的

参考例句：

• I did not esteem him to be worthy of trust.我认为他不值得信赖。
• There occurred nothing that was worthy to be mentioned.没有值得一提的事发生。