VOA标准英语2013--Leaders Call for Investing in Girls

 

Leaders Call for Investing in Girls

 

Leaders of some of the world’s top foundations say much more needs to be done to encourage the hopes, dreams and ambitions of young girls. The issue was discussed at the Women Deliver conference in the Malaysian capital, Kuala Lumpur.

United Nations Foundation President and CEO Kathy Calvin said investing in girls has long term benefits.

“If we don’t put a girl first, if we don’t start with a girl, we may never have the opportunity to help her as a woman. If you address a girl’s issues across the board, you have a really good chance of ensuring that she will have an opportunity to live a long and healthier life – changing both her life and her family’s.”

Maria Eitel, President and CEO of the Nike Foundation, said that often there’s a small window of opportunity to intervene on behalf of girls.

“The younger girls are full of hope – I want to be a doctor…I want to be a pilot…and with enormous hope and aspiration¹. But at that moment of puberty – at 13, 14,15 – it shifts entirely². And what the girl entirely talks about is barriers to her ability to succeed, particularly around the areas of violence and the area of economic duress³ for her family,” she said.

Eitel said in many countries the young girl is “painfully aware” that when her family faces economic problems her life can change dramatically.

“She will be the first to leave school. She will be the first to not eat. They are painfully aware of this. They are very savvy⁴ and they understand that their future is linked to their family’s economic future. They also understand something very interesting – that their parents are caught in a very difficult decision-making tree. They see that violence is very predominant, and they see the risks that they face. And they understand that their parents are trying to protect them. But they see that that same protection turns into exactly what prohibits them from progress.”

World YWCA General Secretary Nyaradzayi Gumbonzvanda said that violence is a major obstacle to women and girls.

“When we have freedom of violence in our homes, in our communities, in our countries, we have opportunities to walk to the river. We have opportunities to walk to school. We have opportunities to be,” she said.

But Gumbonzvanda added that girls want and deserve much more.

“Our girls,” she said, “are asking for social and economic empowerment. Education, education, education and education.”

However, U.N. Special Advisor⁵ Dr. Nafis Sadik said when it comes to education, what girls want and what they get are often two different things.

“The fact that they can go to school is the decision of the family. And the family still in many parts of our world, especially in the rural areas and even some urban areas, preference is given to boys for the reason that they are the breadwinners.”

Sadik said that a lack of education often means a lack of life skills and awareness⁶.

“They want to keep the girl ignorant. And, you know, there are hundreds of women, thousands of women in our societies, who get married and don’t know anything about sexuality and sex, and it comes as a great shock. They get infected with HIV and they really didn’t know that they could get infected,” she said.

MasterCard Foundation President and CEO Reeta Roy said there’s no such thing as a truly free education for girls.

“Even for primary education, which is free, the fees, which are related to uniforms, to books, to supplies, to events, become prohibitive for families to actually overcome. And those costs only increase as we move up the food chain towards secondary education and to university,” she said.

Investing in a girl’s education, Roy said, pays large dividends⁷.

“The opportunity to invest in a young [girl’s], or an adolescent girl’s education, is nothing short of not only shifting her trajectory⁸, but actually fundamentally creating much more inclusive societies; and creating economic growth, which is much more equitable⁹.”

Women Deliver is a global advocacy organization. Its third conference in Kuala Lumpur follows meetings in 2007 and 2010.

1 aspiration   

n.志向，志趣抱负；渴望；(语)送气音；吸出

参考例句：

• Man's aspiration should be as lofty as the stars.人的志气应当象天上的星星那么高。
• Young Addison had a strong aspiration to be an inventor.年幼的爱迪生渴望成为一名发明家。

2 entirely   

ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地

参考例句：

• The fire was entirely caused by their neglect of duty. 那场火灾完全是由于他们失职而引起的。
• His life was entirely given up to the educational work. 他的一生统统献给了教育工作。

3 duress   

n.胁迫

参考例句：

• He claimed that he signed the confession under duress.他说他是被迫在认罪书上签字的。
• These unequal treaties were made under duress.这些不平等条约是在强迫下签订的。

4 savvy   

v.知道，了解；n.理解能力，机智，悟性；adj.有见识的，懂实际知识的，通情达理的

参考例句：

• She was a pretty savvy woman.她是个见过世面的漂亮女人。
• Where's your savvy?你的常识到哪里去了？

5 advisor   

n.顾问，指导老师，劝告者

参考例句：

• They employed me as an advisor.他们聘请我当顾问。
• The professor is engaged as a technical advisor.这位教授被聘请为技术顾问。

6 awareness   

n.意识，觉悟，懂事，明智

参考例句：

• There is a general awareness that smoking is harmful.人们普遍认识到吸烟有害健康。
• Environmental awareness has increased over the years.这些年来人们的环境意识增强了。

7 dividends   

红利( dividend的名词复数 )； 股息； 被除数； （足球彩票的）彩金

参考例句：

• Nothing pays richer dividends than magnanimity. 没有什么比宽宏大量更能得到厚报。
• Their decision five years ago to computerise the company is now paying dividends. 五年前他们作出的使公司电脑化的决定现在正产生出效益。

8 trajectory   

n.弹道，轨道

参考例句：

• It is not difficult to sketch the subsequent trajectory.很容易描绘出它们最终的轨迹。
• The path followed by a projectile is called its trajectory.抛物体所循的路径称为它的轨道。

9 equitable   

adj.公平的；公正的

参考例句：

• This is an equitable solution to the dispute. 这是对该项争议的公正解决。
• Paying a person what he has earned is equitable. 酬其应得,乃公平之事。