VOA常速英语2016--撒哈拉以南非洲依赖童工影响国家发展（在线收听）

Sub-Saharan Africa's Dependence on Child Labor Affects Development 撒哈拉以南非洲依赖童工影响国家发展

As Sub-Saharan Africa strives to break the shackles of poverty, its population of nearly one billion people is hard at work.

随着撒哈拉以南非洲尝试打破贫困的枷锁,这里的近十亿人正从事异常艰辛的劳动。

A 2014 report by the U.S. Department of Labor concluded that one out of five Sub-Saharan children are working under difficult if not squalid conditions.

美国劳工部2014年的一份报告指出撒哈拉以南5个孩子中就有1人要么在肮脏条件下工作，要么从事的是十分艰苦的工作。

Poverty is the driving force behind child labor, says Alex Soho of the International Labor Organization in South Africa.

在通过Skype接受的一次采访中,南非国际劳工组织的亚历克斯·斯赫表示贫穷迫使童工去工作。

"They are poor. Their income is low. They cannot afford hiring adult laborers,” he said. ”So they have to rely, you know, on the work of their kids. This is true for farmers. This is true, also, for farm workers, who have to take them [children] along with them to the plantations, in particular, the whole family, to complete the tasks they've been assigned."

“他们很穷。而且收入很低。他们不能雇佣成人劳动者。所以必须依靠孩子们。农民们就是这样。是这样的,对要带他们前往种植园的农场工人也是这样,尤其是对整个家族而言,要完成分配的任务。”

For these children, daily life consists of more than just backbreaking labor. Hazardous conditions are commonplace — not just on the farms, where pesticides abound and machinery meant to be run by adults poses threats to children, but also in mining, where conditions are sometimes abominable.

对这些孩子们来说,他们的日常生活不仅仅是非常艰辛的劳动。恶劣危险的工作条件已经司空见惯，不仅是农场无处不在的农药及应该由成年人操作的机械对孩子构成威胁,而且在矿场,工作条件有时是令人感到可怕。

Day after day, children stand in muddy creeks and rivers scouring the water for specks of gold dust. There are dangers everywhere — machinery, man-sized or bigger rocks, hazardous chemicals and water-borne diseases.

孩子们日复一日站在泥泞的小溪及河流中冲刷着着金粉的斑点。这样的环境中处处隐藏着危险,如成年男性般或更大的石块,化学危险品及水源性疾病。

Cocoa industry

Another Sub-Saharan African industry dependent on child labor is cocoa, used in the production of chocolate. The U.S. Labor Department report said child labor is prevalent on cocoa plantations in Cameroon, Ghana, Guinea and Sierra Leone. In two other nations — Ivory Coast and Nigeria — it's not only that children are working; it’s that they are being forced to work. 

另一个撒哈拉以南非洲依赖童工的行业是巧克力生产中使用的可可。美国劳工部报告称在喀麦隆、加纳、几内亚及塞拉利昂的可可种植园中童工非常盛行。另外两个国家，象牙海岸及尼日利亚正不仅雇佣孩子们工作,而且还强迫他们工作。

What's worse, the use of children in the cocoa industry is increasing. A study by Tulane University found that the number of children working in the cocoa industry in 2013 and 2014 was 51 percent higher than five years earlier. The Tulane report said 1.4 million Sub-Saharan African children were working in the cocoa industry in 2014.

更糟的是,使用儿童的可可行业正呈现增加趋势。杜兰大学的一项研究发现, 2013及2014年在可可行业工作的童工数量工作比5年前高51%。杜兰大学的这份报告称, 2014年140万名撒哈拉以南的非洲儿童在可可行业工作。

An organization representing the industry says families, not corporations, are mainly responsible for the growth of child labor.

代表该行业的一个组织表示是家庭,而非公司导致童工增长。尼克·威特斯里尔则为国际可可倡议机构辩护。

"More than 99.5 percent of child labor that exists is taking place on the family farm,” said Nick Weatherill, executive director of the International Cocoa Initiative. “And, therefore, the much more extreme and definitely concerning [aspect] of [human] trafficking and kids working in indentured labor — that's less than 0.5 percent. It's still a phenomenon. It's still real, but it's principally driven by criminality. It is not driven by industry [and] corporate business practices."

“超过99.5%的童工是出现在家族农场。而更加极端，令人深感担心及人口贩卖问题，还有孩子们是否签订劳动契约—只占不到0.5%。这仍然是一种现象。而且仍然真实,但主要是由犯罪行为驱使。这不是由行业的商业行为所驱使。”

Anti-child labor activists in the United States are trying to use the courts to confront the chocolate industry. Lawsuits pending in California state courts against Hershey, Mars and Nestle are asking for money for residents who bought chocolate. State law requires candy makers to declare on product packages that child slavery was involved in their making.

美国的反童工活动家们正试图通过法律途径解决巧克力行业雇佣童工的问题。加州州立法院针对好时, 玛氏及雀巢提出的未决诉讼要求购买巧克力的居民们付钱。该州法律要求糖果制造商们在产品包装上标注在制造产品时涉及童工奴隶制。

Hardships for children

Aside from the physical dangers, experts say working is an obstacle to a child's long-term economic advancement, as well.

南非国际劳工组织的亚历克斯·斯赫表示工作对于儿童长期经济发展而言是一道难题障碍。

"This work deprives a child of education and, obviously, of a future, because if a child cannot go to school, the child cannot have a future at all,” Soho said. “And this is why the measures taken by the ILO and its partners, you know, to support national stakeholders, focus on education.”

“这种工作剥夺的是孩子们接受教育的权利,而且很显然,是让他们没有未来,因为如果一个孩子不能去上学,孩子就不能有未来。因此国际劳工组织和合作伙伴正采取措施支持国家利益相关部门关注教育。”

Soho and others say that keeping children in school and helping families pull themselves out of poverty are the keys to helping the people of Africa achieve the kind of growth they need to improve their position in the global marketplace. 

亚历克斯·斯赫和其他人表示让孩子去上学并帮助家庭摆脱贫困是帮助非洲人民实现需要提高在全球市场地位的关键。