VOA标准英语2008年-Global Fund for Women 'Waters' Grassroots in 16

Around the world, women are far more likely than men to be poor, ill-housed, under-educated and victimized by war and discrimination. To help women help themselves and their communities, the Global Fund for Women, or GFW, a San Francisco-based organization, gives $8 million a year to support grassroots projects. So far, the GFW has helped to fund community-based development projects in 167 countries.
　
Leymah Gbowee helped found the Women in Peacebuilding Network

The organization invited some of its current grantees to its recent 20th anniversary celebration in New York. Leymah Gbowee, who helped found the Women in Peacebuilding Network in her rural Liberian community in 2001 was among those attending.

After 11 years of civil war that resulted in tens of thousands of deaths, talks between President Charles Taylor's government and rebel militia¹ groups were stalled. To help prod² the parties into action, Gbowee and other rural women staged peaceful demonstrations³ outside the buildings where negotiations⁴ were being held. And when an agreement was finally reached, the women worked to hold both sides publicly accountable for their promises.

"If some appointment in the government went wrong, we were there," Gbowee recalls proudly. "If disarmament was going wrong, we were there. We were just all over the place!"

Although the role of women may seem minimal⁵ to some, especially when dealing⁶ with warlords, Gbowee says, "[women] are the conscience."

Gbowee's first grassroots group led to the formation, in 2006, of the Women Peace and Security Network-Africa, or WIPSEN. Today, the Global Fund for Women is helping⁷ WIPSEN survey rural women in five West African countries to determine what they believe will ensure peace and security in their communities and the region.

"The U.S. government put billions of dollars into the restructuring of the Liberian army," she says, "but have they ever stopped to ask the rural women 'What is security to you? Are you interested in having a gunboat or having another missile launcher in your army?'"

Gbowee says, for her and many rural African women like her "security means more health care for my children, a proper education and more schools."

Halfway⁸ around the world, in the South American nation of Colombia, decades of violent internal conflict have meant horrific levels of sexual violence and displacement⁹ for women. To address both problems, the Global Fund for Women has supported the launch of the League of Displaced Women, led by lawyer-activist Patrica Guerrero.
　
These Colombian women are part of the Global Fund for Women's "City of Women" project, in which displaced women build their own homes together, creating security and community

One of the League's main projects is its so-called "City of Women" initiative. It's a grassroots project that has trained over 500 internally displaced women in construction skills, then given them raw materials to build their own homes and create new communities for themselves and their families.

The "City of Women" initiative offers one model for effective grassroots development, but it's also politically innovative¹⁰, because women who normally would never own their own property have a place to call their own. And, according to GFW Latin America program officer Erika Guevara-Rosas, it also helps to prevent domestic violence. "The women feel empowered to tell their partners 'if violence starts at home, then you can leave, because this is my place!'"

Global Fund for Women grantees are also working in Asia, where they have tackled such problems as human trafficking and the health and safety of factory workers. In Tibet, GFW has partnered with a yak¹¹ loan program designed to help elderly nomadic¹² women whom the government has forcibly resettled in towns to become financially self-sufficient. "It's a very creative and culturally appropriate strategy they're using," says Dechen Tsering, GFW's program officer for Asia and Oceania.
　
Prudence¹³ Mabele of South Africa had few options when she was diagnosed with HIV-AIDS in the early 1990's, so she helped to create Positive Women's Network, which educated women about HIV and helps advocate for AIDS sufferers

Sometimes, the challenge women must confront in their societies is not poverty or war, but ignorance. When Prudence Mabele, a black South African, was diagnosed with HIV-AIDS in the early 1990s, she and others afflicted¹⁴ with the disease were forced to suffer in shame and silence. Not surprisingly, there were few medical or social services to help them cope with their disease.

In 1992, Mabele publicly announced her condition, and took her own meager¹⁵ savings¹⁶ to start the Positive Women's Network to advocate loudly for AIDS sufferers.

Sande Smith, the Global Fund for Women's public education director, is inspired by Mabele's story, which she says can serve as a model for the empowerment of women everywhere.
　
The Global Fund for Women is helping women in 167 countries help themselves, their families and their communities

"You can do that, too. You can say 'What is it that I need? What is it that I wish I had in my community?' Start talking to others, and then act on it! When … you know that you can make a difference, you become an agent of change, and life [itself] changes."

Other projects supported by the Global Fund for Women range from initiatives in education and legal services to children's health, and the prevention of domestic violence. However, says Smith, there is one common principle underlying¹⁷ all these efforts. "Women can't wait for someone else to do for them. So they have to do it for themselves. And they are creating a world that is going to be good for everyone."

　

 

1 militia   

n.民兵，民兵组织

参考例句：

• First came the PLA men,then the people's militia.人民解放军走在前面，其次是民兵。
• There's a building guarded by the local militia at the corner of the street.街道拐角处有一幢由当地民兵团守卫的大楼。

2 prod   

vt.戳，刺；刺激，激励

参考例句：

• The crisis will prod them to act.那个危机将刺激他们行动。
• I shall have to prod him to pay me what he owes.我将不得不催促他把欠我的钱还给我。

3 demonstrations   

证明( demonstration的名词复数 )； 表明； 表达； 游行示威

参考例句：

• Lectures will be interspersed with practical demonstrations. 讲课中将不时插入实际示范。
• The new military government has banned strikes and demonstrations. 新的军人政府禁止罢工和示威活动。

4 negotiations   

协商( negotiation的名词复数 )； 谈判； 完成（难事）； 通过

参考例句：

• negotiations for a durable peace 为持久和平而进行的谈判
• Negotiations have failed to establish any middle ground. 谈判未能达成任何妥协。

5 minimal   

adj.尽可能少的，最小的

参考例句：

• They referred to this kind of art as minimal art.他们把这种艺术叫微型艺术。
• I stayed with friends, so my expenses were minimal.我住在朋友家，所以我的花费很小。

6 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。

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 halfway   

adj.中途的，不彻底的，部分的；adv.半路地，在中途，在半途

参考例句：

• We had got only halfway when it began to get dark.走到半路，天就黑了。
• In study the worst danger is give up halfway.在学习上，最忌讳的是有始无终。

9 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。

10 innovative   

adj.革新的，新颖的，富有革新精神的

参考例句：

• Discover an innovative way of marketing.发现一个创新的营销方式。
• He was one of the most creative and innovative engineers of his generation.他是他那代人当中最富创造性与革新精神的工程师之一。

11 yak   

n.牦牛

参考例句：

• The most common materials Tibetan jewelry are Yak bone.藏饰最常见的材料当属牦牛骨。
• We can sell yak skin,meat and wool.我们可以卖牦牛的皮、肉和毛。

12 nomadic   

adj.流浪的；游牧的

参考例句：

• This tribe still live a nomadic life.这个民族仍然过着游牧生活。
• The plowing culture and the nomadic culture are two traditional principal cultures in China.农耕文化与游牧文化是我国传统的两大主体文化。

13 prudence   

n.谨慎，精明，节俭

参考例句：

• A lack of prudence may lead to financial problems.不够谨慎可能会导致财政上出现问题。
• The happy impute all their success to prudence or merit.幸运者都把他们的成功归因于谨慎或功德。

14 afflicted   

使受痛苦，折磨( afflict的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• About 40% of the country's population is afflicted with the disease. 全国40%左右的人口患有这种疾病。
• A terrible restlessness that was like to hunger afflicted Martin Eden. 一阵可怕的、跟饥饿差不多的不安情绪折磨着马丁·伊登。

15 meager   

adj.缺乏的，不足的，瘦的

参考例句：

• He could not support his family on his meager salary.他靠微薄的工资无法养家。
• The two men and the woman grouped about the fire and began their meager meal.两个男人同一个女人围着火，开始吃起少得可怜的午饭。

16 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。

17 underlying   

adj.在下面的，含蓄的，潜在的

参考例句：

• The underlying theme of the novel is very serious.小说隐含的主题是十分严肃的。
• This word has its underlying meaning.这个单词有它潜在的含义。