2007年VOA标准英语-Soccer Camps Help Young Refugees Adapt to New L

By Phil Mercer
Sydney
09 August 2007

A new soccer course has been set up in Sydney to help young refugees from Africa. The project, organized by the government and social workers, helps teenage boys from countries such as Sudan and Sierra Leone adapt to their new lives. Australia now resettles more refugees from Africa than from any other region. From Sydney, Phil Mercer reports.

Mohamed Baaruud

Many of the young refugees coaches have led very troubled lives, often punctuated¹ by death and displacement².

Mohamed Baaruud himself fled persecution³ in Somalia and arrived in Australia after living in the United States. He now works for a government agency that helps victims of trauma⁴ and torture.

The soccer camps he runs bring together teenagers from all over the world. They all have one crucial thing in common - they all have fled persecution.

Baaruud says his young players have great potential.

"Most of the African young people are fit, very quick learners and have the potential one day to represent this great nation or be part of the European mainstream⁵ clubs like Manchester or Barcelona or Arsenal⁶ or others," he said. "So I will say I have quite good confidence in terms of the skills of the refugee young people, today they are refugees and this is the situation they're in but you never know what they'll be tomorrow."

Vassay Kamara

Vassay Kamara, 17, fled Liberia after bandits murdered members of his family.

"I live with my parents, my step-mum [mom] [and] dad. My mum - she['s] dead. The robber(s) kill her. Even my Grandmum, too. They kill all of them. Then the robber[s] wanted to kill my dad and we run away from Liberia," said Kamara. "We came to Guinea. We settled there, like, 10 years in the camp then God bless[ed] us and we came to Australia.

Kamara says playing football helps him learn new skills, and have fun.

Football has been a unifying⁷ force for these boys, helping⁸ them to make the often-bewildering adjustment from their old lives in Africa to life in Australia.

James

James, 16, escaped from Sierra Leone with his father and arrived in Sydney in 2002. He says life in Australia is very different from his days in Sierra Leone.

"Little bit tough, war going on, people were homeless, the rebels destroy our houses and stuff so, was a little bit hard, yeah, but we managed to make it out to Guinea," said James.

Jasmina Bajraktarevic-Heywood, who works for a state-funded organization that offers advice and counseling to refugees, arrived in Australia as a refugee from Bosnia 14 years ago and has first-hand knowledge of the damage war can inflict⁹. Her own hardships have convinced her that traumatized young people from Africa and beyond can prosper¹⁰ here.

"With adequate support I think these young people have great things to give to their new country, could be in football but it could be in many other areas. It could be in social welfare. I think there might be potential lawyers there," she said. "There might be potential, you know, engineers or chefs."

Adapting to Australia's Western lifestyle has its problems. There is racism¹¹, and also language difficulties. And simply, life in developed, peaceful Australia is very different from what the newcomers have been used to.

Football, though, is a common denominator.

Branko Culina, the Croatian-born coach of Australian football's glamour¹² club, Sydney FC, believes the game is a powerful force for good.

"Through sport whether it be football or any other sport you can just bring all types of people together. It's something the politicians can only dream of," said Culina. "So through football in particular you can bring all of these groups together and hopefully give them the happiness and satisfaction that they desire."

And there is no shortage of ambition from the young refugees. Both Vassay and James hope to emulate¹³ the world's greatest players.

"I like to play like Ronaldhino and Robinhno, all those best players in the world. I want to be like them," both said.

Australia has significantly increased the number of African migrants it accepts, taking in just over 7,000 last year, half the country's annual total of refugees from official humanitarian¹⁴ programs.

1 punctuated   

v.（在文字中）加标点符号，加标点( punctuate的过去式和过去分词 )；不时打断某事物

参考例句：

• Her speech was punctuated by bursts of applause. 她的讲演不时被阵阵掌声打断。
• The audience punctuated his speech by outbursts of applause. 听众不时以阵阵掌声打断他的讲话。 来自《简明英汉词典》

2 displacement   

n.移置，取代，位移，排水量

参考例句：

• They said that time is the feeling of spatial displacement.他们说时间是空间位移的感觉。
• The displacement of all my energy into caring for the baby.我所有精力都放在了照顾宝宝上。

3 persecution   

n. 迫害,烦扰

参考例句：

• He had fled from France at the time of the persecution. 他在大迫害时期逃离了法国。
• Their persecution only serves to arouse the opposition of the people. 他们的迫害只激起人民对他们的反抗。

4 trauma   

n.外伤，精神创伤

参考例句：

• Counselling is helping him work through this trauma.心理辅导正帮助他面对痛苦。
• The phobia may have its root in a childhood trauma.恐惧症可能源于童年时期的创伤。

5 mainstream   

n.（思想或行为的）主流；adj.主流的

参考例句：

• Their views lie outside the mainstream of current medical opinion.他们的观点不属于当今医学界观点的主流。
• Polls are still largely reflects the mainstream sentiment.民调还在很大程度上反映了社会主流情绪。

6 arsenal   

n.兵工厂，军械库

参考例句：

• Even the workers at the arsenal have got a secret organization.兵工厂工人暗中也有组织。
• We must be the great arsenal of democracy.我们必须成为民主的大军火库。

7 unifying   

使联合( unify的现在分词 )； 使相同； 使一致； 统一

参考例句：

• In addition, there were certain religious bonds of a unifying kind. 此外，他们还有某种具有一种统一性质的宗教上的结合。
• There is a unifying theme, and that is the theme of information flow within biological systems. 我们可以用一个总的命题，把生物学系统内的信息流来作为这一研究主题。

8 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。

9 inflict   

vt.(on)把…强加给，使遭受，使承担

参考例句：

• Don't inflict your ideas on me.不要把你的想法强加于我。
• Don't inflict damage on any person.不要伤害任何人。

10 prosper   

v.成功，兴隆，昌盛；使成功，使昌隆，繁荣

参考例句：

• With her at the wheel,the company began to prosper.有了她当主管，公司开始兴旺起来。
• It is my earnest wish that this company will continue to prosper.我真诚希望这家公司会继续兴旺发达。

11 racism   

n.民族主义；种族歧视(意识)

参考例句：

• He said that racism is endemic in this country.他说种族主义在该国很普遍。
• Racism causes political instability and violence.种族主义道致政治动荡和暴力事件。

12 glamour   

n.魔力，魅力；vt.迷住

参考例句：

• Foreign travel has lost its glamour for her.到国外旅行对她已失去吸引力了。
• The moonlight cast a glamour over the scene.月光给景色增添了魅力。

13 emulate   

v.努力赶上或超越，与…竞争；效仿

参考例句：

• You must work hard to emulate your sister.你必须努力工作，赶上你姐姐。
• You must look at the film and try to emulate his behavior.你们必须观看这部电影，并尽力模仿他的动作。

14 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。