2006年VOA标准英语-Humanitarian Groups Appeal for Support for Afri

By William Eagle
Washington,DC
29 December 2006

Parts of Sudan and Ivory Coast are fighting their central governments; thousands of internally displaced people and refugees are looking for shelter or hoping to return home in West and East Africa; and underdeveloped health care systems across the continent are struggling to cope with disease and food shortages.

As a result, UN spokeswoman Stephanie Bunker in New York says UN relief agencies are asking for nearly 4 billion dollars in humanitarian¹ aid in the coming year.

Much of it is going to East Africa. 

Bunker, who is the spokeswoman for the UN Office of Humanitarian Affairs in New York City, says the biggest crisis is in Sudan and its neighbors Chad and Central African Republic. They are the site of massive population upheavals² from Sudan’s western Darfur province – where rebels from ethnic³ African tribes are fighting against an Arab-led government and its allies, militias⁴ of Arab nomads⁵.

Bunker says the fighting in the region has left more than four million people at risk of hunger and deprivation⁶, including two million displaced and over 200 thousand refugees who have fled to neighboring countries.  In addition, 14 thousand health care workers -- most of them Sudanese -- are helping⁷ provide food, health care, shelter, water and sanitation⁸.  

Several million people also need assistance in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which had elections in 2006 after years of civil war.  Last year, approximately 700 thousand people returned home, while four million remain displaced. 

In West Africa, rebel or separatist activity in Ivory Coast, Sierra Leone, and Liberia have left  governments coping with hundreds of thousands displaced and seeking shelter.

Bunker explains: “When you have a situation with internally displaced or refugees, when people run away from their homes, they sometimes escape with literally⁹ just the clothes on their backs.  (Once they set up camps), they will need things like cooking sets for the wheat or rice they are given, they will need buckets to go to the well to get water. They need plastic tarpaulins¹⁰ for the rain….”  

Disease in Africa is also a recurring¹¹ problem – due to nutritionally weakened populations and to fragile health care systems that can not provide adequate care for their populations:

“(Malnutrition¹² and disease is a) chronic¹³ problem in the Sahel,” says Bunker, “including countries like Mali, Burking Faso, and Niger where there’s a continued need for food aid because 300,000 children die in the Sahel every year from malnutrition.  [In West Africa], there have been…numerous cholera¹⁴ outbreaks, meningitis, and yellow fever.  Even though parts of West Africa are improving, there is still a need to assist countries where there are population movements. “

In some cases, the UN agencies appeal for fertilizer and crop support to head of a prospective¹⁵ shortage.  Bunker explains, “Twice in the last four years, the southern Africa region has tumbled and started to fall off the precipice¹⁶. We had to have big appeals because you have a country like Zambia or Malawi and you have a bad year, flood, drought, and they are fragile. It does not take much to knock them over the edge again.”  In addition she says the work force in some of these countries have been depleted¹⁷ by HIV rates, emigration, and drought. In such situations, she says, an additional stress – either man-made or from nature can be “ the straw that breaks the camel’s back.”

All of the aid requested by the UN for southern Africa in the New Year goes to Zimbabwe – which is suffering food shortages from drought, and from Operation Restore Order, a government effort to move migrants and traders mostly from rural areas from what the government says were illegal settlements, 

In total, UN agencies are asking donors¹⁸ to provide nearly $3.4 billion dollars to finance humanitarian projects in Sub Saharan Africa in 2007.  The West African region, including Ivory Coast,. would require over half a billion dollars;  Central Africa, including the states of the Great Lakes,  would receive over $900 million; Zimbabwe in the south would receive $214 million, while East African states, including Uganda, Sudan and Somalia, would receive nearly $ 2 billion dollars, with the largest sum ($1.8 billion) going to Sudan.

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1 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。

2 upheavals   

突然的巨变( upheaval的名词复数 )； 大动荡； 大变动； 胀起

参考例句：

• the latest upheavals in the education system 最近教育制度上的种种变更
• These political upheavals might well destroy the whole framework of society. 这些政治动乱很可能会破坏整个社会结构。

3 ethnic   

adj.人种的，种族的，异教徒的

参考例句：

• This music would sound more ethnic if you played it in steel drums.如果你用钢鼓演奏，这首乐曲将更具民族特色。
• The plan is likely only to aggravate ethnic frictions.这一方案很有可能只会加剧种族冲突。

4 militias   

n.民兵组织，民兵( militia的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The troops will not attempt to disarm the warring militias. 部队并不打算解除战斗中的民兵武装。 来自辞典例句
• The neighborhood was a battleground for Shiite and Sunni militias. 那里曾是什叶派和逊尼派武装分子的战场。 来自互联网

5 nomads   

n.游牧部落的一员( nomad的名词复数 )；流浪者；游牧生活；流浪生活

参考例句：

• For ten years she dwelled among the nomads of North America. 她在北美游牧民中生活了十年。
• Nomads have inhabited this region for thousands of years. 游牧民族在这地区居住已有数千年了。 来自《简明英汉词典》

6 deprivation   

n.匮乏；丧失；夺去，贫困

参考例句：

• Many studies make it clear that sleep deprivation is dangerous.多实验都证实了睡眠被剥夺是危险的。
• Missing the holiday was a great deprivation.错过假日是极大的损失。

7 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。

8 sanitation   

n.公共卫生，环境卫生，卫生设备

参考例句：

• The location is exceptionally poor,viewed from the sanitation point.从卫生角度来看，这个地段非常糟糕。
• Many illnesses are the result,f inadequate sanitation.许多疾病都来源于不健全的卫生设施。

9 literally   

adv.照字面意义，逐字地；确实

参考例句：

• He translated the passage literally.他逐字逐句地翻译这段文字。
• Sometimes she would not sit down till she was literally faint.有时候，她不走到真正要昏厥了，决不肯坐下来。

10 tarpaulins   

n.防水帆布，防水帆布罩( tarpaulin的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Main wood to aluminum and plexiglass, PC, tarpaulins, toughened glass. 主材以铝型材与进口有机玻璃、PC、防水布、钢化玻璃。 来自互联网
• That means providing tents or other materials, including plastic sheeting, tarpaulins and wood. 这意味着需要帐篷和其他物资，包括塑料布、放水油布和木材。 来自互联网

11 recurring   

adj.往复的，再次发生的

参考例句：

• This kind of problem is recurring often. 这类问题经常发生。
• For our own country, it has been a time for recurring trial. 就我们国家而言，它经过了一个反复考验的时期。

12 malnutrition   

n.营养不良

参考例句：

• In Africa, there are a lot of children suffering from severe malnutrition.在非洲有大批严重营养不良的孩子。
• It is a classic case of malnutrition. 这是营养不良的典型病例。

13 chronic   

adj.(疾病)长期未愈的，慢性的；极坏的

参考例句：

• Famine differs from chronic malnutrition.饥荒不同于慢性营养不良。
• Chronic poisoning may lead to death from inanition.慢性中毒也可能由虚弱导致死亡。

14 cholera   

n.霍乱

参考例句：

• The cholera outbreak has been contained.霍乱的发生已被控制住了。
• Cholera spread like wildfire through the camps.霍乱在营地里迅速传播。

15 prospective   

adj.预期的，未来的，前瞻性的

参考例句：

• The story should act as a warning to other prospective buyers.这篇报道应该对其他潜在的购买者起到警示作用。
• They have all these great activities for prospective freshmen.这会举办各种各样的活动来招待未来的新人。

16 precipice   

n.悬崖，危急的处境

参考例句：

• The hut hung half over the edge of the precipice.那间小屋有一半悬在峭壁边上。
• A slight carelessness on this precipice could cost a man his life.在这悬崖上稍一疏忽就会使人丧生。

17 depleted   

adj. 枯竭的, 废弃的 动词deplete的过去式和过去分词

参考例句：

• Food supplies were severely depleted. 食物供应已严重不足。
• Both teams were severely depleted by injuries. 两个队都因队员受伤而实力大减。

18 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》