每天读一点英文 那些激励我前行的身影 23 为了孩子-奥黛丽•赫本

By Audrey Hepburn

奥黛丽·赫本

Up until some eighteen months ago-before Iwas given the great privilege of becoming a volunteer for UNICEF - I used to beoverwhelmed by a sense of desperation and helplessness when watching televisionor reading about the indescribable misery of the developing world's childrenand their mothers.

就在18个月前，当我有幸成为联合国儿童基金会的一名志愿者之前，每当在电视上或者报纸上看到发展中国家的那些母亲和儿童遭遇的令人难以置信的悲剧时，我常常会感到无限的绝望和无助。

If I feel less helpless today, it isbecause I have now seen what can be done and what is being done by UNICEF, bymany other organizations and agencies, by the churches, by governments, andmost of all, with very little help, by people themselves. And yet, we must domore about the alarming state of the children in the developing world-many areonly just surviving-especially when we know that the finances needed areminimal compared to the global expenditure of this world, and when we know thatless than half of one percent of today's world economy would be the totalrequired to eradicate the worst aspects of poverty and to meet basic humanneeds over the next ten years. In other words, there is no deficit in human resources-thedeficit is in human will.

现在当我再看到这样的故事时，已经不那么觉得无助了。因为现在我知道联合国儿童基金会以及另外一些组织、机构、教会、政府都在努力帮助他们。但是，我们还应该为那些处于危险状态的发展中国家的儿童们做更多的事情，他们中的一些人现在处于仅仅能够活命的状况。尤其是我们要明白这样一个事实--他们所需的财力上的帮助相对于全世界的花销来说，只是小小的一部分;我们也明白，拿出不到世界经济0.5%的力量，就足以根除地球上最贫穷的情况，使这些人们在今后十年获得基本的生存需求。换句话说，人类的资源不存在不充足的问题，不充足的是人们的意愿。

The question I am most frequently asked is:"What do you really do for UNICEF?" Clearly, my task is to inform, tocreate awareness of the need of children. To fully understand the problems ofthe state of the world's children, it would be nice to be an expert oneducation, economics, politics, religious traditions, and cultures. I am noneof these things, but I am a mother.

人们最常问我的一个问题是：你真正为联合国儿童基金会做了什么?很明显，我的职责是通过自己的努力，使社会了解和意识到儿童的需要。如果我是一位教育家、经济学家、政治家、宗教学家或者文化专家的话，我将能更深刻地了解当今世界上的儿童问题。尽管我不是上述任何一种专家，但是，我是一位母亲。

There is unhappily a need for greateradvocacy for children-children haunted by undernourishment, disease and death.You do not have to be a "financial whiz" to look into so many littlefaces with diseased, glazed eyes and to know that this is the result ofcritical malnutrition, one of the worst symptoms of which is vitamin Adeficiency that causes corneal lesions resulting in partial or total blindness,followed within a few weeks by death.

非常遗憾的是，现在儿童事业仍需要很大的支持，许多儿童处在营养不良、疾病和死亡威胁之中。你不用知道确切的数字，只要看看那些瘦小的脸庞和生病中的透明的眼睛，你就会明白他们生活在怎样的处境中。这些都是严重营养不良病症的表现。导致这种病最重要的因素就是缺乏维生素A，这会导致眼角膜受损甚至于部分或完全失明，几周之后可能就会死去。

Every year there are as many as 500,000such cases in countries like Indonesia, Bangladesh, India, the Philippines,Ethiopia.

在印度尼西亚、孟加拉国、印度、菲律宾和埃塞俄比亚等国，每年会发生有50万之多的此类病例。

Today there are in fact, millions of children at risk of going blind.Little wonder that I and many other UNICEF volunteers travel the world to raisefunds before it is too late, but also to raise awareness and to combat adifferent kind of darkness, a darkness people find themselves in through lackof information on how easy it is to reach out and keep these children. It costseighty-four cents a year to stop a child from going blind-the price of twovitamin A capsules.

今天，实际上有上百万的儿童正在受到失明的威胁。毫无疑问，我和基金会的其他志愿者在全世界旅行，不只是尽最大力量寻求社会对基金会的资金支持，同时也在向那些地区的人们普及最基本的医疗知识，告诉他们如何抚养他们的孩子。其实每年只需要8美分就能使一个孩子不至于失明，8美分只是两片维生素A的价格。

I have known UNICEF a long time. For,almost forty-five years ago, I was one of the tens of thousands of starvingchildren in war-ravaged Europe to receive aid from UNICEF, immediately afterour Iiberation.

我很久之前就知道联合国儿童基金会。大约45年前，在刚刚被战火蹂躏完的欧洲，我是几万名饥饿的儿童中的一员，需要联合国儿童基金会的援助。

That liberation freed us from hunger, repression, and constantviolence. We were reduced to near total poverty, as is the developing worldtoday. For it is poverty that is at the root of all their suffering-thenot-having: not having the means to help themselves.

战争结束，我们从饥饿、压迫和持久的暴力中解脱了出来。但是我们当时几乎赤贫，就像现在发展中国家那样。贫穷是一切苦难的根源，贫穷导致缺乏帮助自己的手段。

That is what UNICEF is allabout-helping people to help themselves and giving them the aid to develop.Theeffect of the monstrous burden of debt in the developing world has made thepoor even poorer, and has fallen most heavily on the neediest. Those whom ithas damaged the most have been the women and children.

这就是联合国儿童基金会要做的-使人们拥有能够帮助自己的能力，给予他们发展的援助。在发展中国家，沉重的债务负担使得穷人更加贫困，而最贫困的人负担则最重。受伤害最大的莫过于妇女和儿童。

Unlike droughts, floods, or earthquakes,the tragedy of poverty cannot easily be captured by the media and brought tothe attention of the public worldwide. It is happening not in any oneparticular place, but in slums and shanties and neglected rural communitiesacross two continents.

与干旱、洪水或者地震等自然灾害不同，贫困并不会常常被媒体关注，因此在世界范围内也得不到社会的注意。贫穷问题不只在特定的地方发生，它在两个大陆的贫民窟、棚户区和被忽视的农村地区广泛地存在。

It is happening not at any one particular time, but overlong years of increasing poverty, which have not been featured in the nightlynews but which have changed the lives of many millions of people. And it ishappening not because of any one visible cause, but because of an unfoldingeconomic drama in which the industrialized nations play a leading part, whichis spreading human misery and hardship on a scale and of a severityunprecedented in the postwar era.

贫穷问题也不只在特定的时间发生，很多年以来，贫困人口一直持续增长。尽管贫困问题并没有上电视台的晚间新闻，但是却威胁着上百万人的生存。贫困问题的发生，也不只是因为某一个原因，但有一个重要的原因，就是发达国家工业化生产和这些发展中国家手工劳作的产品差异。

In Africa, for instance, in spite ofnational reforms, improved weather conditions, and a surge of theiragricultural output, all their hard-earned gains have been undermined byinternational economic trends and a drastic fall in commodity prices. They arenow compelled to return four times as much money as they were loaned! But thepoorest sectors of society in the developing world are also suffering as aresult of all too frequent misappropriation of funds, as well as the tremendousinequality in the distribution of land and other productive resources.

举个例子说，在非洲，尽管国家进行了改革，气候条件有了改善，农业产量也显著增加，但是他们辛苦劳作的所得却被国际经济趋势和农产品价格的猛烈下降所破坏。他们目前被迫要以4倍的钱数来还贷款。但是，在发展中国家里最贫穷的部分还源于经常发生的挪用盗用资金以及土地和其他生产资料的严重分配不均。

UNICEF's business is children-not theworkings of the international economy. In its everyday work in over 100developing nations, UNICEF is brought up against a face of today'sinternational economic problems that is not seen in the corridors of financialpower, not reflected in the statistics of debt service ratios, not seated atthe conference tables of debt negotiations-it is in the face of a child.

联合国儿童基金会的工作是为了儿童，而不是为了国际经济。联合国儿童基金会正在全球超过100个发展中国家开展工作。在这些工作中，联合国儿童基金会遇到了一些国际经济问题，这些问题不会在金融巨子的走廊中看到，不会在债券汇率的数据中反映出来，也不会在债务谈判桌上发现，这些问题出现在儿童的面庞上。

It isthe young child whose growing mind and body is susceptible to permanent damagefrom even temporary deprivation. The human brain and body are formed within thefirst five years of life, and there is no second chance.

这些问题包括：儿童们正在发育的身心正在受到哪怕是暂时性的贫困的伤害。人类大脑和身体的发育情况，是在5岁之前就奠定了基础的，而且不会有第二次发育的机会。

It is the young childwhose individual development today, and whose social contribution tomorrow, arebeing shaped by the economics of now. It is the young child who is paying thehighest of all prices. We cannot therefore ignore the economic issues which forso many millions of the world's poorest families have made the 1980s into adecade of despair.

儿童们今天的个人发展以及明天对于社会的贡献，都在隐性地被当前的经济情况所塑造。儿童们也正在付出最昂贵的代价。我们不能忽视这样的事实：世界上成百万的最贫穷的家庭正在把20世纪80年代变成一个饥荒的年代。

Today the heaviest burden of a decade offrenzied borrowing is falling not on the military, nor on those foreign bankaccounts, nor on those who conceived the years of waste, but on the poor whoare having to do without the bare necessities, on the women who do not haveenough food to maintain their health, on the infants whose minds and bodies arebeing stunted because of untreated illnesses and malnutrition, and on childrenwho are being denied their only opportunity ever to go to school.

今天，承受无节制的借款带来的沉重负担的不是军方，不是那些外国银行家，也不是那些预支过奢侈生活的人，而是连基本生活必需品都缺乏的穷人，是缺乏必要的食品维持健康的妇女，是因为缺乏医疗和营养不良而影响生长发育的婴儿，是连上学的机会都被剥夺的儿童。

When theimpact becomes visible in the rising death rates among children, then what hashappened is simply an outrage against a large section of humanity. Nothing canjustify it. The consensus now beginning to take shape is that the burden ofdebt must be lifted to a degree where the developing countries can cope withdebt repayment, to the point where their economies can grow out of theiroverwhelming indebtedness, and set them on the road to recovery and realdevelopment.

当这种影响反映到儿童死亡率的上升时，这简直就是违反人性的暴行了。这绝对是不正当的。目前，一个共识正在形成，那就是发展中国家的债务负担应该减少，使得发展中国家有能力偿还债务，使得发展中国家的经济能够从沉重无比的债务中解脱出来，同时走上复苏和真正发展之路

World population growth is beginning to bebrought under control. Change is in prospect everywhere-and if at this timethere is the vision to use this opportunity creatively to see a brave new worldand to dare to reach for it, there is a real possibility over the next tenyears to begin to come to grips with the triad of fundamental problems whichthreaten mankind: the presence and the threat of war, the deterioration of theenvironment, and the persistence of the worst aspects of absolute poverty.

世界人口增长正在逐渐受到控制。变化正在各地出现。但是如果在目前的时刻，我们能够创造性地利用这个机会，去发现一个新世界并且有勇气去把这个新世界变为现实，那么在未来十年里，我们就很有可能去解决威胁人类的三大主要问题:战争、环境恶化和贫穷。

Many of the great social changes of modernhistory-the abolition of slavery, the ending of colonial rule, the isolation ofapartheid, the increasing consensus on the environment, or the growingrecognition of the rights of women-have begun with rhetorical commitment whichhas eventually turned into action. In the 1990s it may at last be the turn ofthe child, and our dream for an international summit for children andratification of the Convention on the Rights of the Child could become areality.

废除奴隶制度、终结殖民地制度、取消种族隔离、对环境问题的关注以及对妇女权利的承认都是当代重大的社会变化。这些社会变化都是从文字上的承诺开始最终变成实际行动的。在20世纪90年代，是我们应该关注儿童问题的时候了。我们的梦想-召开一次国际儿童首脑会议并且签署一份《儿童权利协定》-一定会变成现实。

奥黛丽·赫本女士对联合国工作人员的演讲(下)

Forty thousand (35,000 in 2003) childrenstill die every day-280,000 a week (245,000 in 2003). No natural calamity, beit flood or earthquake, has ever claimed as many children's lives-and thishappens every week mostly in the silent emergency of preventable diseases likepolio, tetanus, tuberculosis, measles, and the worst killer of all, dehydrationfrom diarrhea caused by unclean drinking water and malnutrition.

导致儿童死亡的杀手是一些悄悄蔓延的疾病，例如骨髓灰质炎、破伤风、结核病、麻疹等。最恐怖的是痢疾引起的脱水症，这是由于饮用不卫生的水和营养不良而引起的。这些疾病其实都是可以预防的。

It costs fivedollars to vaccinate a child for life, 6 cents will prevent death from dehydration,and 84 cents per year will stop a child from going blind. How is it thatgovernments spend so much on warfare and bypass the needs of their children,their greatest capital, their only hope for peace?

现在，每天都有40000名儿童失去生命(到2003年这个数字会是35000)，每周死亡儿童的人数是280000(到2003年是245000)。无论洪水还是地震，没有任何一种自然灾害能够夺走这么多儿童的生命。给一个儿童进行预防接种只需要5美元，防治脱水症只需要6美分，每年花费84美分就可以防止儿童失明。为什么政府宁愿花巨资购置军备，而不愿意把钱花在儿童身上?儿童应该是最伟大的财产，是和平的希望。

Must admit to you that the magnitude of thetask that UNICEF has undertaken sometimes overwhelms me, and I am saddened andfrustrated when I stop to think of what we cannot do-like change the worldovernight-or when I have to deal with the cynics of this world who argue, Is itmorally right to save the lives of children who will only grow up to moresuffering and poverty due to overpopulation?

我必须承认，联合国儿童基金会正在进行的一些工作有时让我觉得很受打击。当我停下来想到，有许多事情-例如在一夜之间改变这个世界-我们无法做到时，或者当我与一些偏执的愤世者-他们认为贫困和痛苦是这些发展中国家人口过剩导致的-交谈时，我常常感到悲哀和失落。要解决人口过剩的问题，不是依靠让儿童们死去，而应该依靠计划生育和生育间隔。

Letting children die is not theremedy to overpopulation; family planning and birth spacing is. Rapidpopulation growth can be slowed by giving the world's poor a better life,giving them health, education, housing, nutrition, civil rights. These thingsare not free but available at a cost that developing countries can afford,given the assistance they need. China, Indonesia, Thailand, and Mexico havealready proven that population can be slowed by working on public healtheducation and family planning.

通过给予世界上的穷人更好的生活，给予他们健康、教育、房屋、营养和人权等，可以使人口增长速度降低。这些措施不是免费的，需要付出一定代价，但是这都是发展中国家可以承受的，我们可以给予这些国家帮助。中国、印度尼西亚、泰国和墨西哥已经证明，通过在公共健康、教育和计划生育方面的努力，可以降低人口增长速度。

The World Bank now forecasts that by theearly 1990s the world should reach the historic turning point at which theannual increase in global population begins to decline. It is also true that inno country has the birth rate declined before infant deaths have declined. Inother words, parents can plan to have two children if they know they willsurvive, rather than having six in the hopes that two will survive.

世界银行预测，20世纪90年代初期是世界人口增长的转折点，人口增长趋势从此以后将从增长变为减少。一个事实是，没有任何一个国家在婴儿死亡率降低之前能够实现出生率的降低。换句话说，家长应该生育两个孩子，同时保证这两个孩子都能生存下来，而不是生育六个子女，只希望其中两个能够存活。

That is whyUNICEF is also so dedicated to educating and informing mothers in child care.For it is the mother who is still the best "caretaker" of her child,and UNICEF supports any amount of educational projects for women in thedeveloping countries that relate directly to health and nutrition, sanitationand hygiene, education and literacy.

这也是为什么联合国儿童基金会要致力于对母亲们进行有关如何照料子女的教育。因为，母亲是儿童们最好的"保姆"。联合国儿童基金会支持发展中国家的一切与妇女的健康、营养、卫生、教育、扫盲等有关的教育计划。

So today I speak for those children whocannot speak for themselves: children who are going blind through lack ofvitamins; children who are slowly being mutilated by polio; children who arewasting away in so many ways through lack of water; for the estimated 100million street children in this world who have no choice but to leave home inorder to survive, who have absolutely nothing but their courage and theirsmiles and their dreams; for children who have no enemies yet are invariablythe first tiny victims of war-wars that are no longer confined to thebattlefield but which are being waged through terror and intimidation andmassacre-children who are therefore growing up surrounded by the horrors ofviolence for the hundreds of thousands of children who are refugees.

因此，今天我是为那些不能为他们自己要求什么的儿童们说话：我为因为缺乏维生素而失明的儿童们、为正在被骨髓灰质炎伤害的儿童们、为因为缺乏饮用水而日渐衰弱的儿童们说话;我为世界上大约一亿流浪儿童说话，他们为了生存被迫离开家庭，他们除了勇气、微笑和梦想之外一无所有;我为战争中被伤害的儿童说话，他们没有任何敌人，但是在战火中却永远最先受到伤害。现在的战争不再仅限于战场，恐怖和屠杀正在各地蔓延。成千上万的儿童成为了难民，因此也在暴力恐怖的阴影下长大。

The taskthat lies ahead for UNICEF is ever greater, whether it be repatriating millionsof children in Afghanistan or teaching children how to play who have onlylearned how to kill. Charles Dickens wrote, "In their little world, inwhich children have their existence, nothing is so finely perceived and sofinely felt as injustice."

摆在联合国儿童基金会面前的任务，无论是把几百万阿富汗难民儿童遣返，还是要教会这些只见过死亡的孩子们游戏，都是史无前例的艰巨。查理斯·狄更斯说过:"在他们自我存在的小世界里，没有什么比不公正更容易被儿童们感知和察觉。"

Injustice which we can avoid by giving more ofourselves, yet we often hesitate in the face of such apocalyptic tragedy. Why,when the way and the low-cost means are there to safeguard and protect thesechildren? It is for leaders, parents, and young people-young people, who havethe purity of heart which age sometimes tends to obscure-to remember their ownchildhood and come to the rescue of those who start life against such heavyodds.

我们可以通过更多的投入来避免不公平的现象，但是面对着这样不可避免的悲剧时，我们常常望而却步。为什么，选择采用低成本的方式来保护这些儿童?领导人、父母和年轻人-年轻人拥有尚未被岁月模糊掉的纯净的心灵-应该记住他们自己的童年时代，应该去解救那些生下来就面临沉重负担的儿童。

Children are our most vital resource, ourhope for the future. Until they not only can be assured of physically survivingthe first fragile years of life, but are free of emotional, social and physicalabuse, it is impossible to envisage a world that is free of tension andviolence. But it is up to us to make it possible.

儿童是我们最重要的资源，是我们对未来的希望。我们不止应该保证儿童能够维持生命的存活，还应该使他们远离感情的、社会的和身体上的虐待。只有这样，才有可能设想一个没有不安和暴力的世界。要使这个设想变为现实，必须靠我们自己。

UNICEF is a humanitarian institution, not acharitable organization. It deals in development, not in welfare, givinghandouts to those waiting with their hands outstretched. On my travels toEthiopia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Central America, Mexico, and the Sudan, I haveseen no out-stretched hands, only a silent dignity and a longing to helpthemselves, given the chance.

联合国儿童基金会是一个人道主义组织，而不是一个慈善组织。它解决的是发展问题，而不是像福利救济那样，只是向伸出的求助的手里分发东西。我去过了埃塞俄比亚、委内瑞拉、厄瓜多尔、墨西哥和苏丹等国。在这些地方，我看到的不是伸出要东西的手，而是沉默却有尊严，以及对有机会自己帮助自己的渴望。

UNICEF's mandate is to protect every childagainst famine, thirst, sickness, abuse, and death. But today we are dealingwith an even more ominous threat, "man's inhumanity to man;" with thedark side of humanity that is polluting our skies and our oceans, destroyingour forests and extinguishing thousands of beautiful animals. Are our childrennext?

联合国儿童基金会的职责是保护儿童，使他们远离饥饿、干渴、疾病、虐待和死亡。但是今天，我们还要面对一个更危险的威胁-"人类对自己的不人道"，即对环境的破坏。人性最黑暗一面体现在污染了我们的天空和海洋，毁坏了我们的森林，消灭了上千的美丽的动物。难道儿童会是下一个吗?

That is what we are up against. For it isno longer enough to vaccinate our children, to give them food and water, andonly cure the symptoms of man's tendency to destroy-to destroy everything wehold dear, everything life depends on,the very air we breathe,the earth thatsustains us, and the most precious of all, our children.

这是我们要起来反对的。因为仅仅给儿童注射疫苗，或者给他们食物和水已经不足以保护他们了。人类正在破坏我们拥有的最亲密的一切和我们生命赖以生存的一切，包括我们呼吸的空气、我们生存的土壤和我们最宝贵的儿童。

Whether it be faminein Ethiopia, excruciating poverty in Guatemala and Honduras, civil strife in ElSalvador, or ethnic massacre in the Sudan, I saw but one glaring truth. Theseare not natural disasters, but man-made tragedies, for which there is only oneman-made solution-peace.

只有消灭人类这种破坏的欲望，才能保护儿童。无论是埃塞俄比亚的饥荒，危地马拉和洪都拉斯严重的贫困，萨尔瓦多的内战，还是苏丹的种族屠杀，我都看到一个明显的事实。那些地方都没有自然灾害，有的只是人类制造的悲剧。而人类解决的方法也只有一个，那就是和平。

Even if this mammoth Operation Life-LineSudan were only to achieve half its goal, due to the countless odds it is upagainst-in a vast country with no infrastructure, few roads to speak of, nocommunication system-it will have succeeded, For not only will it have savedthousands of lives, but it will also have given the Sudan hope.

"苏丹生命线"计划是个很庞大的工程，也面临着困难：苏丹是个辽阔的国家，缺乏基础设施，也没有真正意义上的道路网络、通讯系统。但是，即使这个行动只能达到它一半的目标，就可以说是成功的了。

The UnitedNations will have shown the world that only through corridors of tranquillitycan children be saved, that only through peace can man survive, and onlythrough development will they survive, with dignity and a future. A future inwhich we can say we have fulfilled our human obligation.

因为它不只拯救了几千条生命，而且给了苏丹希望。联合国将证明，只有和平安宁的环境，才能拯救儿童;只有和平才能使人类生存;只有发展才能让人们生存得有尊严、有未来。在我们的未来，当我们可以宣布我们已经履行了人类的职责时，这才是我们应该有的未来。

Your 1 percent is an example of 100 percentbut all together a beautiful example to us of love and caring. Together thereis nothing we cannot do.

你们"百分之一"基金是百分之百的一个例子。但是联合起来就是关于爱和人道主义的榜样。只要我们在一起，没有什么不可能的。

Thank you.

谢谢!

【人物简介】

奥黛丽·赫本(Audrey Hepburn，1929.05.04——1993.01.20)，英国著名电影和舞台剧女演员，奥斯卡影后，被世人敬仰为“人间天使”。身为好莱坞最著名的女星之一，她以优雅的气质和有品味的穿着著称。奥黛丽·赫本晚年投身慈善事业，是联合国儿童基金会亲善大使的代表人物。作为亲善大使，她不时举办一些音乐会和募捐慰问活动，造访贫穷地区儿童，足迹遍及亚非拉许多国家。1992年被授予美国“总统自由勋章”，1993年获奥斯卡人道主义奖。她生前主演的多部电影例如《罗马假日》《蒂凡尼的早餐》《窈窕淑女》等至今仍为无数影迷心目中的经典。1999年，她被美国电影学会评为“百年来最伟大的女演员”第三位。