2007年VOA标准英语-New Yorker’s Mission: Helping Children from Abr

By Weaver¹ Carolyn
New York
09 April 2007
 
Watch Global Medical Relief Fund

A tiny organization based in New York City is making big changes in the lives of a few lucky children from around the world. The ten-year-old Global Medical Relief Fund has helped about 55 children from countries including Iraq, Pakistan, Nepal, Indonesia, Niger, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Bosnia, Mexico, and El Salvador. Fifteen children from the New York area have also received aid. The organization remains² small so that every visiting child and family can be helped directly and personally, says founder³ and director Elissa Montanti. But even on a small scale, she says, raising the necessary funds is an uphill battle.

 
Global Medical Relief Fund founder and director Elissa Montanti
In 1996, New Yorker Elissa Montanti met a Bosnian diplomat⁴ at a fundraiser. She asked what she could do to help Bosnia. He showed her a letter from a boy, Kenan Malkic, who had stepped on a landmine⁵ when he was 10 years old. He had lost both arms and a leg, and at 14 was largely confined to his home. His letter asked for someone, anyone, to help him.

“I read the letter, and it was as if the world stood still,” Elissa Montanti said in a recent interview. “I can't even explain it, but I knew I had to help this boy."

“And about two weeks later I got a call saying they had found a person who would be bringing me to the United States to get help with prosthetics,” Kenan, now 24, said, sitting by her side. “And shortly after that, Elissa called."

Elissa Montanti, a former medical technician, began calling doctors and hospitals, asking for free care for Kenan. She brought him to live with her in New York to be fitted for prosthetic limbs at the Shriners Hospital for Children in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. That was only the beginning for both of them. “I helped Kenan, and Kenan went back, and I knew I wanted to do more,” Montanti said. “It was almost very natural, that this is what I want to do, this is what I'm kind of meant to do. And I was finding my way as I was doing it."

 
Kenan Malkic
After Kenan – now able to walk and use his artificial hands -- returned home to Bosnia, Montanti named her new charity the Global Medical Relief Fund, and began flying other children to the U.S. for help, children from Africa, Asia, the Middle East, Latin America and Europe, some born with defects, others hurt in war or accidents. She’s traveled to other countries in her work, including Iraq. She says that although it makes her angry to see children injured in war, she resists the temptation to speak out.

“Because I really need to focus on the children, and if I was to be more verbal, if would probably hurt the charity and any support that is coming in. And God knows, we exist on a prayer. So it’s not easy, you do your best, and you keep your mouth shut, because the thing is, you need support, and these children need help.”

 
Ermina and Jasmine, two Bosnian children recently helped by GMRF
Ermina and Jasmine, two recent visitors, are Bosnian. Jasmine lost a leg in an accident when he was five. Ermina was born with an undeveloped left arm. Like the other children helped by the charity, they and their mothers stayed in rooms donated by the Mount Manresa Jesuit Retreat House, in Staten Island, New York. They must return every year or two to be refitted at Shriners Children's Hospitals, where all the care and prosthetics are free.

Montanti arranges it all, with the help of a few volunteers: seeing to the visiting childrens’ comfort, medical visits, and entertainment. Now that the children and their parents are housed at Mount Manresa, where there’s a dining room, she no longer has to grocery shop. Still, it’s a busy life.

Montanti’s most crucial support, she says, is her second-in-command, Kenan Malkic, the boy she first helped. He’s now attending college and living with Montanti and her husband on Staten Island. Montanti’s husband helps support her, so she draws a small salary from the Fund only when there is enough money. But she says the cost of airfare, food, and visas make it a constant struggle to keep the charity afloat.

“Right now I'm a little frightened, to tell you the truth,” she said, “because oh, God, I've got so many children. And I just sit there and put my head in my hands, and say, God, just provide, just help. Just within the next couple of months I have eight children who need to return. That's not to mention another eight who are all new. And right now, if no additional funds come in, I'm not going to be able to do it."

The Global Medical Relief Fund is supported by private donations, and depends in large part on a grant from Staten Island’s Richmond County Savings⁶ Foundation. But Montanti says major grant-givers are not usually interested in supporting such a modest organization.

 
Montanti with a vistor from abroad
“They want to see a big charity,” she said. “They think if you are a big charity, and you have a paid staff, and you have a big salary, well, that warrants a grant. And that really is so unfair. Because here we are, really making an impact. Whether we’re helping⁷ ten or 15 children a year, we’re making an incredible impact, And in many ways, when you’re dealing⁸ with the Middle East, specifically Iraq, you’re preventing – or should I say, I won’t say preventing, but these children and people are going back, saying wow, the Americans really are helpful and wonderful. So there’s a lot more here than just prosthetics."

Kenan Malkic says that Elissa Montanti has influenced him more than anything in his life, even more than his accident. He says she is like a second mother to him, and that he wants to stay in the U.S. to continue helping in her work.

“Living with her and seeing how she cares about other people and the wonderful things that she does kind of made me realize that, the help that I've gotten, that I can pass that on to other people, too,” he said. “To make them realize that yeah, bad things have happened to you, but it's not the end of the world."

1 weaver   

n.织布工；编织者

参考例句：

• She was a fast weaver and the cloth was very good.她织布织得很快，而且布的质量很好。
• The eager weaver did not notice my confusion.热心的纺织工人没有注意到我的狼狈相。

2 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。

3 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。

4 diplomat   

n.外交官，外交家；能交际的人，圆滑的人

参考例句：

• The diplomat threw in a joke, and the tension was instantly relieved.那位外交官插进一个笑话，紧张的气氛顿时缓和下来。
• He served as a diplomat in Russia before the war.战前他在俄罗斯当外交官。

5 landmine   

n.地雷

参考例句：

• A landmine is a kind of weapon used in war.地雷是一种运用于战争的武器。
• The treaty bans the use,production and trade of landmine.那条约禁止使用生产和交易雷。

6 savings   

n.存款，储蓄

参考例句：

• I can't afford the vacation,for it would eat up my savings.我度不起假，那样会把我的积蓄用光的。
• By this time he had used up all his savings.到这时，他的存款已全部用完。

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 dealing   

n.经商方法，待人态度

参考例句：

• This store has an excellent reputation for fair dealing.该商店因买卖公道而享有极高的声誉。
• His fair dealing earned our confidence.他的诚实的行为获得我们的信任。