VOA慢速英语2009年-Development Report - A Service Group Built

This is the VOA Special English Development Report.
　
Amizade volunteers learn about local culture and make friends as they work in communities throughout the world

Amizade means friendship in Portuguese¹. It is also the name of a service organization in the United States that places volunteers in projects mostly in developing countries. Amizade's executive² director, Eric Hartman, thought of the idea in Brazil in nineteen ninety-four, which explains the Portuguese name.

The Amizade Global Service-Learning and Volunteer Programs placed three hundred volunteers in nine countries last year. These American university students and others worked in thirteen communities.

Amizade works with local groups and individuals on service and learning projects. The local groups define³ and direct the projects. The volunteers learn about local culture and make friends as they work in the community.

Amizade charges college students as much as ten thousand dollars for three months of experience.

Volunteers generally provide labor⁴ and do things like teach and assist at health centers. They can also do research. College students can earn work-study credits.

Participants in programs have included a twelve-year-old boy and a man in his eighties.

There are programs in Ghana, Tanzania, Brazil, Bolivia, Mexico and Jamaica. There are also programs in Germany, Poland, Northern Ireland and the United States.

Recently, in Tanzania, thirteen Amizade volunteers worked on systems to harvest rainwater from the roofs of homes. They worked on the project in the Karagwe area, in the northwestern part of the country. Eric Hartman, the director, described the water collection systems in blog postings from Tanzania earlier this month.

Rain falls on the metal roofs and flows into aluminum⁵ gutters⁶. These gutters carry the water to a large collection tank on the side of the home.

The rain harvesting systems mean that a family member no longer has to walk long distances to get water. So there is more time for farming or schoolwork. The systems are especially useful for those who are too sick to go a long way for water.

On the Caribbean island nation of Jamaica, Amizade places volunteers with a local partner in the small community of Petersfield. The volunteers live with local families. They help children with schoolwork and computer skills. They also visit the sick and work on building, painting and other restoration projects in the community.

And that's the VOA Special English Development Report, written by Jerilyn Watson. I'm Steve Ember.

1 Portuguese   

n.葡萄牙人；葡萄牙语

参考例句：

• They styled their house in the Portuguese manner.他们仿照葡萄牙的风格设计自己的房子。
• Her family is Portuguese in origin.她的家族是葡萄牙血统。

2 executive   

adj.执行的，行政的；n.执行者，行政官，经理

参考例句：

• A good executive usually gets on well with people.一个好的高级管理人员通常与人们相处得很好。
• He is a man of great executive ability.他是个具有极高管理能力的人。

3 define   

vt.解释，下定义，阐述，限定，规定

参考例句：

• Please define the words.请解释这些字的意义。
• It's hard to define exactly what has changed.很难解释清楚到底发生了什么变化。

4 labor   

n.劳动，努力，工作，劳工；分娩；vi.劳动，努力，苦干；vt.详细分析；麻烦

参考例句：

• We are never late in satisfying him for his labor.我们从不延误付给他劳动报酬。
• He was completely spent after two weeks of hard labor.艰苦劳动两周后，他已经疲惫不堪了。

5 aluminum   

n.(aluminium)铝

参考例句：

• The aluminum sheets cannot be too much thicker than 0.04 inches.铝板厚度不能超过0.04英寸。
• During the launch phase,it would ride in a protective aluminum shell.在发射阶段，它盛在一只保护的铝壳里。

6 gutters   

（路边）排水沟( gutter的名词复数 )； 阴沟； （屋顶的）天沟； 贫贱的境地

参考例句：

• Gutters lead the water into the ditch. 排水沟把水排到这条水沟里。
• They were born, they grew up in the gutters. 他们生了下来，以后就在街头长大。