艾滋病一线护理工作者的故事

orphan¹¹" align=center>Caregivers on the Frontline of the AIDS Pandemic

艾滋病一线护理工作者的故事

 

In the war against HIV/AIDS, caregivers may have the most battle scars. Those scars are not readily seen because they are from deep psychological and emotional wounds caused by the deaths of loved ones.  One caregiver from Zambia is touring the United States telling her stories about life on the frontlines of a pandemic. 

 

Doras Chirwa remembers when HIV/AIDS made its presence known in Zambia.  It was about twenty years ago when the first case was reported at the University Teaching Hospital in Lusaka.

 

Doras Chirwa: At that time I think little did we know that the future would bring a nightmare so horrific and so large.

 

Now, sixteen percent of Zambia’s adult population is infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.

 

Doras Chirwa: When you think of that proportion, it leaves all of us back home affected¹ in one way or the other.

 

Doras Chirwa works for the international humanitarian² organization CARE and heads the agency’s HIV/AIDS sector³ in Zambia. 

 

In the beginning, she says, AIDS was a mystery.  People were dying, but no one knew why.  But like many others in Zambia, and in sub-Saharan Africa for that matter, she came to know the disease all too well.

 

Doras Chirwa: First it was my elder sister and this was a woman I was looking up to. She was my mentor⁴.  She was my everything really.  She inspired me.  And she was gone. In fact, she was living alone.  I had to move her to my flat because I couldn’t manage to be visiting her every day.  I was so scared.  I didn’t know what it was.  And I didn’t talk about it.  She didn’t talk about it and she went down just like that and died.

 

She left behind four sons, who needed a place to live.  Doras decided⁵ to adopt them.  She already had three children of her own.

 

Doras Chirwa: Suddenly the house was overcrowded because now I was the mother of seven.  My income was overstretched.  I didn’t know how to share the attention among the seven children, but I had to keep on.  As if that wasn’t enough, my brother died and left behind one little girl.  She was two at the time.  So I had to take in the girl.  And unfortunately, the girl was also HIV positive.  I became a mother of eight.

 

In all, Doras lost two brothers and a sister and – as she puts it – “countless⁶ cousins.”  In a recent speech she said, “Death is all around you.  On better days, death takes a distant relative rather than a close one, an acquaintance rather than a friend.” Adding, “I don’t even want to talk about the bad days.”

 

Then a glimpse of what might be - successful treatment of a few patients with anti-retroviral drugs.

 

Doras Chirwa: It was becoming a hopeless situation because you have colleagues that you are working with that are dying everyday.  And where is the morale⁷?  Where do you draw the strength to even continue, to even talk about prevention?  But when you see colleagues that were almost down dying and they are up again and becoming productive again, it gives a lot of hope.  And it gives a lot of strength to even do more on prevention.

 

When people ask her what’s needed to fight HIV/AIDS, the Zambian activist⁸ tells them to use a holistic⁹ approach.

 

Doras Chirwa: I’m not talking about abstinence alone.  I’m not talking about condoms alone.  I’m not talking about treatment alone.  I’m talking about everything.

 

CARE – with the help of the US and Canadian governments and other donors¹⁰ – operates 126 AIDS projects in Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean.  These include voluntary AIDS testing and counseling centers and prevention programs, as well as community projects to help the sick and care for AIDS orphans¹².

 

With so much personal loss from HIV/AIDS, one may wonder what sustains Doras Chirwa?

 

Doras Chirwa: At times I also wonder.  I wake up.  I walk around with a smile on my face.  I smile a lot.  And, you know, when I sit back I wonder what makes me smile or what keeps me going?  Now I know there’s knowledge.  Now I know there’s expertise¹³.  Now I know there’s treatment.  And I know that if people worked together it’s a matter of time.  This pandemic can be halted.

 

As Doras Chirwa tours the United States and speaks to average Americans, she ends her speech with these words: “All life is precious.  I think that’s the way all of you would want it.”

 

Joe De Capua, VOA news, Washington.

 

注释：

psychological [7saikE5lCdVikEl] adj. 心理（上）的

emotional [i5mEuFEnl] adj. 情感的

Zambia [5zAmbiE] n. 赞比亚

nightmare [5naItmeEr] n. 梦魇，恶梦

humanitarian [hju7mAni5tZEriEn] n. 人道主义者

inspire [in5spaiE] vt. 鼓舞，启发

overcrowd [7EuvE5kraud] vt. 容纳过多的人，使过度拥挤

acquaintance [E5kweintEns] n. 相识，熟人

holistic approach 整体分析

abstinence [5AbstinEns] n. 节欲

condom [5kCndEm] n. 避孕套

orphan [5C:fEn] n. 孤儿

1 affected   

adj.不自然的，假装的

参考例句：

• She showed an affected interest in our subject.她假装对我们的课题感到兴趣。
• His manners are affected.他的态度不自然。

2 humanitarian   

n.人道主义者，博爱者，基督凡人论者

参考例句：

• She has many humanitarian interests and contributes a lot to them.她拥有很多慈善事业，并作了很大的贡献。
• The British government has now suspended humanitarian aid to the area.英国政府现已暂停对这一地区的人道主义援助。

3 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。

4 mentor   

n.指导者，良师益友；v.指导

参考例句：

• He fed on the great ideas of his mentor.他以他导师的伟大思想为支撑。
• He had mentored scores of younger doctors.他指导过许多更年轻的医生。

5 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

6 countless   

adj.无数的，多得不计其数的

参考例句：

• In the war countless innocent people lost their lives.在这场战争中无数无辜的人丧失了性命。
• I've told you countless times.我已经告诉你无数遍了。

7 morale   

n.道德准则，士气，斗志

参考例句：

• The morale of the enemy troops is sinking lower every day.敌军的士气日益低落。
• He tried to bolster up their morale.他尽力鼓舞他们的士气。

8 activist   

n.活动分子，积极分子

参考例句：

• He's been a trade union activist for many years.多年来他一直是工会的积极分子。
• He is a social activist in our factory.他是我厂的社会活动积极分子。

9 holistic   

adj.从整体着眼的，全面的

参考例句：

• There is a fundamental ambiguity in the use of word "whole" in recent holistic literature.在近代的整体主义著作中，“整体”这个词的用法极其含混。
• In so far as historicism is technological,its approach is not piecemeal,but "holistic".仅就历史决定论是一种技术而论，它的方法不是渐进的，而是“整体主义的”。

10 donors   

n.捐赠者( donor的名词复数 )；献血者；捐血者；器官捐献者

参考例句：

• Please email us to be removed from our active list of blood donors. 假如你想把自己的名字从献血联系人名单中删去，请给我们发电子邮件。
• About half this amount comes from individual donors and bequests. 这笔钱大约有一半来自个人捐赠及遗赠。 来自《简明英汉词典》

11 orphan   

n.孤儿；adj.无父母的

参考例句：

• He brought up the orphan and passed onto him his knowledge of medicine.他把一个孤儿养大，并且把自己的医术传给了他。
• The orphan had been reared in a convent by some good sisters.这个孤儿在一所修道院里被几个好心的修女带大。

12 orphans   

孤儿( orphan的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The poor orphans were kept on short commons. 贫苦的孤儿们吃不饱饭。
• Their uncle was declared guardian to the orphans. 这些孤儿的叔父成为他们的监护人。

13 expertise   

n.专门知识(或技能等)，专长

参考例句：

• We were amazed at his expertise on the ski slopes.他斜坡滑雪的技能使我们赞叹不已。
• You really have the technical expertise in a new breakthrough.让你真正在专业技术上有一个全新的突破。