VOA标准英语2013--MSF Providing Medical Aid in Northern Mali

 

MSF Providing Medical Aid in Northern Mali

As the conflict continues in northern Mali, medical aid teams are helping¹ civilians² who’ve been displaced. Doctors Without Borders says it’s providing primary health care in some regions, while dispatching mobile medical units to others.

Doctors Without Borders – also known by the French acronym³ MSF -- says it’s providing care and treatment in Mopti, Gao, Douentza and Timbuktu. It’s also managed to get a team to Konna this week. The town’s about 70 miles north of Mopti and the scene of recent heavy fighting.

“All the teams are running hospitals and supporting activity for the civilians. It’s quite difficult to know where we are going in this moment. We are keeping our teams in all those locations for the moment and still trying to run the hospitals and the clinics,” said Rosa Crestani, the group’s emergency coordinator⁴ for intervention⁵ in Mali.

She said, so far, medical teams have only seen a few civilians actually wounded in the fighting between the French-led intervention force and the militias⁶.

“But we are really concerned about their situation because the movement – not only for our teams, but for the civilians in this area – is still very dangerous. Since last Sunday, we are receiving in Fassala, the entry point in Mauritania, several hundred new refugees from Mali. We are running a camp in M’bera. That is the camp in Mauritania. There were already 55,000, more or less, refugees since last year. And now, for example, in the last three days there are around 1,000 new arrivals a day,” she said.

Crestani said that the civilians not only fear fighting on the ground, but bombing from the air.

“Women and children are mainly trying to escape or to hide themselves. This is the situation we are seeing in the villages and the towns where we are working. They are trying to keep themselves in the houses – not moving around a lot,” she said.

However, she said once word gets out that medical teams have arrived, civilians show up in large numbers. Many need treatment for malaria⁷. Crestani says gaining greater access to regions in northern Mali is the goal of all humanitarian⁸ groups there. 

1 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。

2 civilians   

平民，百姓( civilian的名词复数 )； 老百姓

参考例句：

• the bloody massacre of innocent civilians 对无辜平民的血腥屠杀
• At least 300 civilians are unaccounted for after the bombing raids. 遭轰炸袭击之后，至少有300名平民下落不明。

3 acronym   

n.首字母简略词，简称

参考例句：

• That's a mouthful of an acronym for a very simple technology.对于一项非常简单的技术来说，这是一个很绕口的缩写词。
• TSDF is an acronym for Treatment, Storage and Disposal Facilities.TSDF是处理，储存和处置设施的一个缩写。

4 coordinator   

n.协调人

参考例句：

• The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, headed by the Emergency Relief Coordinator, coordinates all UN emergency relief. 联合国人道主义事务协调厅在紧急救济协调员领导下，负责协调联合国的所有紧急救济工作。
• How am I supposed to find the client-relations coordinator? 我怎么才能找到客户关系协调员的办公室？

5 intervention   

n.介入，干涉，干预

参考例句：

• The government's intervention in this dispute will not help.政府对这场争论的干预不会起作用。
• Many people felt he would be hostile to the idea of foreign intervention.许多人觉得他会反对外来干预。

6 militias   

n.民兵组织，民兵( militia的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The troops will not attempt to disarm the warring militias. 部队并不打算解除战斗中的民兵武装。 来自辞典例句
• The neighborhood was a battleground for Shiite and Sunni militias. 那里曾是什叶派和逊尼派武装分子的战场。 来自互联网

7 malaria   

n.疟疾

参考例句：

• He had frequent attacks of malaria.他常患疟疾。
• Malaria is a kind of serious malady.疟疾是一种严重的疾病。

8 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。