VOA标准英语2008年-Aid Group Warns of Horn of Africa Food Crisis

British humanitarian¹ organization ActionAid is calling for governments in the Horn of Africa to help small-scale farmers and for donor² nations to increase funding and food-aid shipments to the region. The organization says without urgent action, several million people in five countries could face starvation in the coming months. VOA Correspondent Alisha Ryu has the story from our East Africa Bureau in Nairobi.
　
A malnourished Ethiopian child, 06 Jun 2008

The head of emergencies for ActionAid, Roger Yates, says a combination of failed harvests, global increases in the price of food, fertilizers and fuel, political instability and violence have left many communities in Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, and Somalia unable to cope.

"I would not use the hype of saying it is the worst ever," he said. "But I do not think we have ever seen a point where this massive food crisis have compounded so badly with the natural phenomena³ of drought, animal diseases, further compounded by the political conflicts that we have seen there."

The United Nations and other international agencies have described the events as a perfect storm, setting the stage for a possible famine in the Horn region.

While it has rained in some drought-stricken areas in recent weeks, aid workers say it has been too little or too late for sufficient harvests this year. Making matters worse, an infestation⁴ of army worms have wiped out crops that had been salvaged⁵.

The U.N. food agency estimates that nearly five million Ethiopians are in critical need of emergency food aid until the end of the year. In Somalia, another three million people, many of them women and children displaced by war, are already suffering from severe malnutrition⁶ and are in dire⁷ need of help.

Less documented is the food crisis in Kenya, where more than one million people are struggling to find enough food. Prices of some staples⁸ such as maize⁹ have doubled here since the beginning of the year.

Roger Yates says in some parts of the northern Rift¹⁰ Valley, poor people are surviving on little more than wild berries.

"What we do not want is to see people having to move away from their homes or to sell all their assets to survive," he said. "If we get enough help in good time, then people can recover quite quickly from a crisis like this. If not, then it takes years to recover. As we see it, now is the tipping point and we have to respond to that. And it is a challenge. We have had crisis in the Horn before and perhaps because of that, it is harder to get the level of support that is needed. But we cannot live in a world where we allow people simply to starve."

Yates says while donor nations need to respond with adequate funding for food aid, governments in the Horn region should begin addressing the crisis by helping¹¹ small-scale farmers and herders protect their livelihoods¹² and ensure that no more crops or livestock¹³ are lost.

 

1 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。

2 donor   

n.捐献者；赠送人；(组织、器官等的)供体

参考例句：

• In these cases,the recipient usually takes care of the donor afterwards.在这类情况下，接受捐献者以后通常会照顾捐赠者。
• The Doctor transplanted the donor's heart to Mike's chest cavity.医生将捐赠者的心脏移植进麦克的胸腔。

3 phenomena   

n.现象

参考例句：

• Ade couldn't relate the phenomena with any theory he knew.艾德无法用他所知道的任何理论来解释这种现象。
• The object of these experiments was to find the connection,if any,between the two phenomena.这些实验的目的就是探索这两种现象之间的联系，如果存在着任何联系的话。

4 infestation   

n.侵扰，蔓延

参考例句：

• The premises were treated for cockroach infestation.因蟑螂成灾，这些房屋集中进行了灭蟑活动。
• Parts of California are suffering from an infestation of oriental fruit flies.加利福尼亚的部分地区正遭受东方果蝇的大肆侵袭。

5 salvaged   

（从火灾、海难等中）抢救（某物）( salvage的过去式和过去分词 )； 回收利用（某物）

参考例句：

• The investigators studied flight recorders salvaged from the wreckage. 调查者研究了从飞机残骸中找到的黑匣子。
• The team's first task was to decide what equipment could be salvaged. 该队的首要任务是决定可以抢救哪些设备。

6 malnutrition   

n.营养不良

参考例句：

• In Africa, there are a lot of children suffering from severe malnutrition.在非洲有大批严重营养不良的孩子。
• It is a classic case of malnutrition. 这是营养不良的典型病例。

7 dire   

adj.可怕的，悲惨的，阴惨的，极端的

参考例句：

• There were dire warnings about the dangers of watching too much TV.曾经有人就看电视太多的危害性提出严重警告。
• We were indeed in dire straits.But we pulled through.那时我们的困难真是大极了，但是我们渡过了困难。

8 staples   

n.（某国的）主要产品( staple的名词复数 )；钉书钉；U 形钉；主要部份v.用钉书钉钉住( staple的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• The anvil onto which the staples are pressed was not assemble correctly. 订书机上的铁砧安装错位。 来自辞典例句
• I'm trying to make an analysis of the staples of his talk. 我在试行分析他的谈话的要旨。 来自辞典例句

9 maize   

n.玉米

参考例句：

• There's a field planted with maize behind the house.房子后面有一块玉米地。
• We can grow sorghum or maize on this plot.这块地可以种高粱或玉米。

10 rift   

n.裂口，隙缝，切口；v.裂开，割开，渗入

参考例句：

• He was anxious to mend the rift between the two men.他急于弥合这两个人之间的裂痕。
• The sun appeared through a rift in the clouds.太阳从云层间隙中冒出来。

11 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。

12 livelihoods   

生计，谋生之道( livelihood的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• First came the earliest individualistic pioneers who depended on hunting and fishing for their livelihoods. 走在最前面的是早期的个人主义先驱者，他们靠狩猎捕鱼为生。 来自英汉非文学 - 政府文件
• With little influence over policies, their traditional livelihoods are threatened. 因为马赛族人对政策的影响力太小，他们的传统生计受到了威胁。

13 livestock   

n.家畜，牲畜

参考例句：

• Both men and livestock are flourishing.人畜两旺。
• The heavy rains and flooding killed scores of livestock.暴雨和大水淹死了许多牲口。