美国国家公共电台 NPR For Asylum-Seekers Waiting In Mexico, Volunteers Offer Medical Help

 

SCOTT SIMON, HOST:

Thousands of Central American migrants are living in shelters across Tijuana, waiting for their chance to ask for asylum¹ at the U.S. border. They're living in close quarters, and as the temperatures drop, there are concerns about their health. A group of doctors, nurses and volunteers are crossing the border from San Diego once a week to provide medical care. KPCC's Alyssa Jeong Perry reports.

ALYSSA JEONG PERRY, BYLINE²: The large government-run shelters where hundreds of migrants are living are serviced by health care professionals. But there's a number of informal shelters in the city where there's little or no health care. And that's where these volunteer groups of doctors and nurses focus their attention.

(SOUNDBITE OF COUGHING)

PERRY: At a private home that now serves as an LGBTQ shelter, Dr. Lucy Horton is treating a 20-year-old man who complained of tension³ headaches and body aches. Horton hands him some Tylenol and with the help of volunteer translator Diana Aguirre, she asks him if he's stressed. He nods his head yes.

LUCY HORTON: Do you have any family with you?

DIANA AGUIRRE: (Speaking Spanish).

HORTON: You're just by yourself.

AGUIRRE: (Speaking Spanish).

PERRY: The man began crying.

HORTON: You've made it really far.

AGUIRRE: (Speaking Spanish).

PERRY: Aguirre, the volunteer translator, was born in the U.S. and lives in northern San Diego County⁴, but her grandmother and mom illegally crossed the Mexico-U.S. border decades ago, so the migrant caravan⁵ hits close to home for her.

AGUIRRE: I wanted to do more than just donate money. I wanted to do something hands-on.

PERRY: So she jumped at the chance to translate for the doctors and nurses. But the experience of seeing and talking to these migrants has had an emotional⁶ impact⁷.

AGUIRRE: I can't imagine being young and feeling all alone and not knowing what's going to happen. And just to be able to be there for him was worth the entire day.

PERRY: Nurse practitioner⁸ Karen Linares also felt a personal connection to the migrants and wanted to volunteer her time.

KAREN LINARES: I was born in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, but I was adopted when I was 7. So just knowing that my raza, which is, like, my, you know, people from my country, I felt like I was obligated to come.

PERRY: The volunteers spend all day Sunday running from makeshift shelters to tent camps to provide basic medical care to up to 100 migrants. They hand out cold medicine, ibuprofen and antibiotics⁹. They typically see colds, fevers and a lot of upper respiratory infections. But the care and medicine they do provide is crucial¹⁰ to preventing any viruses that could spread like wildfire throughout the overcrowded camps and shelters.

HORTON: I'm looking for antibiotics.

AGUIRRE: (Speaking Spanish).

PERRY: The group usually finds out by word of mouth where medical care is most needed, like this teen shelter in the middle of town. Seventeen-year-old Radonis is staying at the teen shelter. He asked that we do not use his full name out of security¹¹ concerns. He's from Honduras and arrived in Tijuana after traveling through Mexico by riding on top of trains and walking. And before coming to the shelter, he slept on the beaches. Now he has a deep cough that just won't go away.

RADONIS: (Speaking Spanish).

PERRY: "I was sick all the way from Mexico City to here," he says. "I had everything - a cold. I was really sick." So the doctors hand him cough drops, and now he has time to rest in a safe place.

RADONIS: (Speaking Spanish).

PERRY: "I feel like I'm home," he says. "I'm improving every day." For NPR News, I'm Alyssa Jeong Perry in Tijuana.

1 asylum   

n.避难所，庇护所，避难

参考例句：

• The people ask for political asylum.人们请求政治避难。
• Having sought asylum in the West for many years,they were eventually granted it.他们最终获得了在西方寻求多年的避难权。

2 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

3 tension   

n.(紧张)状态；拉(绷)紧；张力，拉力

参考例句：

• I could feel the tension in the room. 我可以感觉到房间里的紧张气氛。
• Relaxaion is better than tension. 缓和比紧张好。

4 county   

n.县，郡

参考例句：

• When the good news reached there,the whole county rejoiced.喜讯传到那里时，全县的人都欢欣鼓舞起来。
• In that year county after county fell to the enemy.那一年一个又一个的县城沦入敌人手中。

5 caravan   

n.大蓬车；活动房屋

参考例句：

• The community adviser gave us a caravan to live in.社区顾问给了我们一间活动住房栖身。
• Geoff connected the caravan to the car.杰弗把旅行用的住屋拖车挂在汽车上。

6 emotional   

adj.令人动情的；易动感情的；感情(上)的

参考例句：

• Emotional people don't stop to calculate.感情容易冲动的人做事往往不加考虑。
• This is an emotional scene in the play.这是剧中动人的一幕。

7 impact   

n.冲击，碰撞；影响；vt.装紧，压紧

参考例句：

• The computer had made a great impact on modern life.计算机对现代生活产生了巨大的影响.
• How will the war impact on such a poet?战争对这样一个诗人会产生什么影响？

8 practitioner   

n.实践者，从事者；(医生或律师等)开业者

参考例句：

• He is an unqualified practitioner of law.他是个无资格的律师。
• She was a medical practitioner before she entered politics.从政前她是个开业医生。

9 antibiotics   

n.（用作复数）抗生素；（用作单数）抗生物质的研究；抗生素，抗菌素( antibiotic的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• the discovery of antibiotics in the 20th century 20世纪抗生素的发现
• The doctor gave me a prescription for antibiotics. 医生给我开了抗生素。

10 crucial   

adj.极重要的，决定性的，关键性的

参考例句：

• It's a crucial decision.这是一个极其重要的决定。
• The foreign market was increasingly crucial.国外市场越来越重要了。

11 security   

n.安全，安全感；防护措施；保证(金)，抵押(品)；债券，证券

参考例句：

• A security guard brought him down with a flying tackle.一名保安人员飞身把他抱倒。
• There was tight security at the airport when the President's plane landed.总统的专机降落时，机场的保安措施很严密。