2007年VOA标准英语-Far from Families, Girls Vulnerable to Abuse in

By Phuong Tran
Dakar
14 March 2007

Policies throughout Africa have improved access to education for young women and girls.  But with a shortage of classrooms and teachers in many villages, the result has been an increase in the number of girls sent away from their villages to school, and also an increase in reported cases of violence against girls in schools.  Child protection organizations say the solution starts with the family.  Reporter Phuong Tran has more on the issue in this third report in a five-part series on the changing African family.

The U.N. children's organization, UNICEF, has reported a steady increase in violence against girls in West Africa in recent years.

Its regional Child Protection Director in West Africa, Jean-Claude Legrand, says girls are put at risk when families do not live under the same roof.

"There is a pattern of violation¹ of girls' rights, which means as soon as girls are deprived of the protection of their families, they are entering a world of abuse," Legrand says.

Young women in West Africa have long been sent to cities to work as domestic workers.  There, Legrand says, they have often been victims of abuse by their employers.

Legrand says this violence is spreading to the classroom.

Within the past 10 years, Senegal's Ministry² of Education has made keeping girls in school one of its priorities.  It has created a nationwide network of tutors and mentors³ for girls, and convinced parents to send their daughters to school rather than using them as labor⁴ at home.

The result has been a dramatic increase in the number of young female students, who often face abusive teachers. 

"Poverty is a dynamic.  Teachers do not get paid [much] so the government does not want to upset teachers by putting some kind of control or constraints⁵ over them," Legrand says. "Poverty leads families to depend on the teachers, so the girls are caught in a system where they have to find a way to survive."

He says the violence is not only from teachers but also from male students not used to seeing so many female classmates.
 
The U.N. child protection officer says the problem requires working first with the family to change how their daughters are treated at home before leaving for school.

"Because girls are seen with lower status in this region, this is one of the trigger points to abuse, violence and exploitation of girls," Legrand says. "[We must] do everything possible to change the perception of girls because this is really the foundation of possible change."

In this rural community of Fatick, Babacar Samb says he remembers when a group of village female elders visited him to talk to him about his 19-year-old daughter, Soda⁶.

Soda Samb

Samb says the women told him that because Soda was smart and wanted to be a lawyer, he should not keep her at home to sew in his business.  He says they also told him he should not hit her as much as he did the other children so she could focus on her studies.

Samb says the women helped enroll⁷ Soda in a scholarship program where she received free school and monthly classes in leadership.

Sociologist⁸ Djiby Diakhate says these types of leadership programs, also called girls' empowerment, are important in decreasing violence against young women, both in families and in the schools. 

"The belief about girls' inferiority is dangerous because it leads to violent behavior like daughter beating," Diakhate says. "The campaign to empower girls of today is a campaign to empower women of tomorrow."

Soda Samb, the 19-year-old daughter, finished her classes in Fatick and is preparing to go to Dakar for university.

Soda says her parents support her studies.  She adds she has learned about women's emancipation⁹ through her scholarship program and classroom lectures.

Samb concludes girls are as good and smart as boys, if not more.

1 violation   

n.违反(行为)，违背(行为)，侵犯

参考例句：

• He roared that was a violation of the rules.他大声说，那是违反规则的。
• He was fined 200 dollars for violation of traffic regulation.他因违反交通规则被罚款200美元。

2 ministry   

n.(政府的)部；牧师

参考例句：

• They sent a deputation to the ministry to complain.他们派了一个代表团到部里投诉。
• We probed the Air Ministry statements.我们调查了空军部的记录。

3 mentors   

n.（无经验之人的）有经验可信赖的顾问( mentor的名词复数 )v.（无经验之人的）有经验可信赖的顾问( mentor的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• Beacham and McNamara, my two mentors, had both warned me. 我的两位忠实朋友，比彻姆和麦克纳马拉都曾经警告过我。 来自辞典例句
• These are the kinds of contacts that could evolve into mentors. 这些人是可能会成为你导师。 来自互联网

4 labor   

n.劳动，努力，工作，劳工；分娩；vi.劳动，努力，苦干；vt.详细分析；麻烦

参考例句：

• We are never late in satisfying him for his labor.我们从不延误付给他劳动报酬。
• He was completely spent after two weeks of hard labor.艰苦劳动两周后，他已经疲惫不堪了。

5 constraints   

强制( constraint的名词复数 )； 限制； 约束

参考例句：

• Data and constraints can easily be changed to test theories. 信息库中的数据和限制条件可以轻易地改变以检验假设。 来自英汉非文学 - 科学史
• What are the constraints that each of these imply for any design? 这每种产品的要求和约束对于设计意味着什么？ 来自About Face 3交互设计精髓

6 soda   

n.苏打水；汽水

参考例句：

• She doesn't enjoy drinking chocolate soda.她不喜欢喝巧克力汽水。
• I will freshen your drink with more soda and ice cubes.我给你的饮料重加一些苏打水和冰块。

7 enroll   

v.招收；登记；入学；参军；成为会员（英)enrol

参考例句：

• I should like to enroll all my children in the swimming class.我愿意让我的孩子们都参加游泳班。
• They enroll him as a member of the club.他们吸收他为俱乐部会员。

8 sociologist   

n.研究社会学的人，社会学家

参考例句：

• His mother was a sociologist,researching socialism.他的母亲是个社会学家，研究社会主义。
• Max Weber is a great and outstanding sociologist.马克斯·韦伯是一位伟大的、杰出的社会学家。

9 emancipation   

n.（从束缚、支配下）解放

参考例句：

• We must arouse them to fight for their own emancipation. 我们必须唤起他们为其自身的解放而斗争。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• They rejoiced over their own emancipation. 他们为自己的解放感到欢欣鼓舞。 来自《简明英汉词典》