VOA常速英语2007-IDP Children In Mayo Farm Suffer High Malnutriti

By Lisa Schlein
Geneva
08 October 2007

Sudan's infant malnutrition¹ and mortality rates are among the highest in the world. Wherever international aid agencies operate, they make a difference in saving lives and creating healthier babies. Lisa Schlein visited a Global Health Project program run by the international charity CARE. She reports for VOA the program was started in 1992, in Mayo Farm, one of four official IDP (Internally Displaced Persons) camps on the outskirts² of the Sudanese capital Khartoum.

The malnourished babies look lethargic³, but their mothers do not. They are actively⁴ and energetically participating in a class on the proper care and feeding of their infants. Discussions, demonstrations⁵ and song are all part of the teaching mix.

Director-General of the Global Health Care Foundation, Yahia Abugrain shows visitors around the health center. He explains many children are malnourished because the mothers do not know how to feed them.

"Come here. This is a very important department. We call it a cultural. And, they prepare the food for the malnourished. They show the mothers how to prepare the food and how they offer the meal. And, they tell the pregnant women also how they care about their kids and the malnourished especially. And, then we work on combating AIDS," he said. "So we have very simple songs about the AIDS, how they just prevent, protect themselves."

Mayo Farm is a sprawling⁶ IDP camp. It has an estimated population of 90,000. Most of the people are from southern Sudan and the Nuba Mountains Areas.

The people are extremely poor. Nearly half the households are headed by women. Basic services are very limited. Hygiene⁷ and sanitation⁸ are big concerns. Only 50 percent of the families living in the camp have access to pit latrines.

There are only three health clinics set up to care for the entire population.

One of them, says Dr. Abugrain, is run by the Global Health Care Foundation.

"We are offering mainly the basic health care here, plus care for pregnant mother, the lactation and children with malnutrition, plus the medical care of the people around here," he said. "We are serving around 40,000 people just around here. Mainly, we are concentrating on malnutrition and ante-natal care in this camp."

Nutritionist for Care International, Hanadi Omer, says CARE has succeeded in reducing the number of severely⁹ malnourished children in the camp. The biggest problem now, she says, is to bring down the large number of moderately malnourished children.

"So, we are starting to give food and to give health education for the mothers to know how to prepare food in the good way, how to give the healthy food to children," she said. "We give also information about sanitation, about health, about how to treat diarrhea. All this will reduce the number of moderately malnourished children."

Women gather around to soothe¹⁰ the baby. Her mother, 32-year old Regina Bol, says her baby is moderately malnourished and needs special food.

She says her child is malnourished and that is why she brings her here, so her health can improve ... She said the child was sick and she has no money to buy drugs and that was why she was told to bring the child here."

Regina Bol has five children. She fled the war in the South and came to Mayo Camp 10 years ago. Now that the war is over, she says she and her husband want to go home.

When the rainy season is over, she is ready to go back ... If they go to the South, they are going to start cultivating their normal life because it is their place of origin ... She is going to educate her children so that they have a brighter future ... Life here is different. In the South, they can get the opportunity to work, to cultivate. But, here they are staying, there are no jobs. This is the difference.

Gadallah Elradi is a Public Information Officer for UNMIS, the U.N. Mission in Sudan. He says he has seen a lot of families go back to their homes in the south only to be disappointed and to come back.

"From the few who have been able, for example, to go back to the south, so many families have come back to Khartoum because they find it difficult to live there as they have no services, no schools, no basic infrastructure¹¹. Simply they went back and they found nothing," he said. "So, they have to make their mind to come again here."

Elradi says people will have to see real change take place in their home areas before they are willing to go home and stay home.

1 malnutrition   

n.营养不良

参考例句：

• In Africa, there are a lot of children suffering from severe malnutrition.在非洲有大批严重营养不良的孩子。
• It is a classic case of malnutrition. 这是营养不良的典型病例。

2 outskirts   

n.郊外，郊区

参考例句：

• Our car broke down on the outskirts of the city.我们的汽车在市郊出了故障。
• They mostly live on the outskirts of a town.他们大多住在近郊。

3 lethargic   

adj.昏睡的，懒洋洋的

参考例句：

• He felt too miserable and lethargic to get dressed.他心情低落无精打采，完全没有心思穿衣整装。
• The hot weather made me feel lethargic.炎热的天气使我昏昏欲睡。

4 actively   

adv.积极地，勤奋地

参考例句：

• During this period all the students were actively participating.在这节课中所有的学生都积极参加。
• We are actively intervening to settle a quarrel.我们正在积极调解争执。

5 demonstrations   

证明( demonstration的名词复数 )； 表明； 表达； 游行示威

参考例句：

• Lectures will be interspersed with practical demonstrations. 讲课中将不时插入实际示范。
• The new military government has banned strikes and demonstrations. 新的军人政府禁止罢工和示威活动。

6 sprawling   

adj.蔓生的，不规则地伸展的v.伸开四肢坐[躺]( sprawl的现在分词 )；蔓延；杂乱无序地拓展；四肢伸展坐着（或躺着）

参考例句：

• He was sprawling in an armchair in front of the TV. 他伸开手脚坐在电视机前的一张扶手椅上。
• a modern sprawling town 一座杂乱无序拓展的现代城镇

7 hygiene   

n.健康法，卫生学 （a.hygienic）

参考例句：

• Their course of study includes elementary hygiene and medical theory.他们的课程包括基础卫生学和医疗知识。
• He's going to give us a lecture on public hygiene.他要给我们作关于公共卫生方面的报告。

8 sanitation   

n.公共卫生，环境卫生，卫生设备

参考例句：

• The location is exceptionally poor,viewed from the sanitation point.从卫生角度来看，这个地段非常糟糕。
• Many illnesses are the result,f inadequate sanitation.许多疾病都来源于不健全的卫生设施。

9 severely   

adv.严格地；严厉地；非常恶劣地

参考例句：

• He was severely criticized and removed from his post.他受到了严厉的批评并且被撤了职。
• He is severely put down for his careless work.他因工作上的粗心大意而受到了严厉的批评。

10 soothe   

v.安慰；使平静；使减轻；缓和；奉承

参考例句：

• I've managed to soothe him down a bit.我想方设法使他平静了一点。
• This medicine should soothe your sore throat.这种药会减轻你的喉痛。

11 infrastructure   

n.下部构造，下部组织，基础结构，基础设施

参考例句：

• We should step up the development of infrastructure for research.加强科学基础设施建设。
• We should strengthen cultural infrastructure and boost various types of popular culture.加强文化基础设施建设，发展各类群众文化。