VOA标准英语2008年-WFP Makes First-Ever Food Delivery to Kenyan Sl

By Alisha Ryu
Nairobi
10 January 2008

The United Nations' World Food Program made its first-ever food delivery to slums in the Kenyan capital Nairobi on Thursday, revealing the magnitude of the humanitarian¹ crisis unfolding in the east African country after post-election violence displaced hundreds of thousands of people there.  VOA Correspondent Alisha Ryu has the story from Nairobi.

Thousands of people shoved and clawed their way to a Kenyan Red Cross truck that began distributing food early Thursday in Nairobi's Kibera slum, one of the largest slums in the world and home to almost one million people.

A mother of five young children was clinging desperately² to a truck that carried vegetable oil, beans, lentil, and high-protein biscuits donated by the World Food Program and cereals provided by the Kenyan government.   She says she and her family had not eaten for the past four days.

"We were told that food is coming here.  We have come for food.  I am hungry, Bwana [sir]!," she said.

The vast majority of people in Kibera and other slums in the capital, including many day laborers³, say they have been prisoners in their homes for nearly two weeks because of the on-going violence and insecurity.

With few people able to work, many families, who were already barely surviving on less than two dollars a day, have been left destitute⁴.  

The spokesman for the World Food Program in Nairobi, Peter Smerdon, says even those who have some money have not been able to buy the most basic food supplies.

"The slums have managed to get by with extreme problems," Smerdon said. "But now, they really do need help.  They are short of food because traders did not want to bring food into the slums because of the unrest and if they did bring a little bit of food in, food prices had gone up in some cases by 400 percent, so the people in the slums cannot afford to buy the food that is brought in."

On December 30, Kibera, a stronghold of Kenyan opposition⁵ leader Raila Odinga, erupted in riots and looting after incumbent⁶ President Mwai Kibaki was declared the winner of the December 27 presidential vote.  The opposition says the vote was rigged.

Election-related violence in Kibera and other opposition strongholds in Nairobi and in western Kenya quickly degenerated⁷ into brutal⁸ ethnic⁹ battles, prompting some 255,000 people to flee their homes.

Long considered one of the most politically stable countries in Africa, U.N. agencies and dozens of other aid organizations have long used Kenya as an operational hub to help people escape turmoil¹⁰ in neighboring countries.  

Aid workers say few agencies had anticipated a crisis of this scale within Kenya itself. 

In several violence-wracked areas of western Kenya, Smerdon says WFP is working with local partners to feed more 100,000 people, who have lost everything, including their homes, farms, and businesses in ethnic clashes and to marauding criminal gangs.

WFP says in recent days, food has been distributed to about 71,000 Kenyans in the northern Rift¹¹ Valley area, but aid officials say another 30,000 people in western Kenya are in dire¹² need of assistance.      

"Yes, our Kenyan staff and my foreign colleagues are shocked," Smerdon said. "In northern and eastern Kenya, there are droughts and floods and WFP is currently feeding 700,000 people there.  But you do not expect to see that in western Kenya, which is the bread basket of the country."

Local radio and television stations have been urging private citizens, who have not been affected¹³ by the unrest, to donate food, clothes, and other goods to help alleviate¹⁴ the burden on aid agencies.

1 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。

2 desperately   

adv.极度渴望地，绝望地，孤注一掷地

参考例句：

• He was desperately seeking a way to see her again.他正拼命想办法再见她一面。
• He longed desperately to be back at home.他非常渴望回家。

3 laborers   

n.体力劳动者，工人( laborer的名词复数 )；（熟练工人的）辅助工

参考例句：

• Laborers were trained to handle 50-ton compactors and giant cranes. 工人们接受操作五十吨压土机和巨型起重机的训练。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
• Wage-labour rests exclusively on competition between the laborers. 雇佣劳动完全是建立在工人的自相竞争之上的。 来自英汉非文学 - 共产党宣言

4 destitute   

adj.缺乏的；穷困的

参考例句：

• They were destitute of necessaries of life.他们缺少生活必需品。
• They are destitute of common sense.他们缺乏常识。

5 opposition   

n.反对，敌对

参考例句：

• The party leader is facing opposition in his own backyard.该党领袖在自己的党內遇到了反对。
• The police tried to break down the prisoner's opposition.警察设法制住了那个囚犯的反抗。

6 incumbent   

adj.成为责任的，有义务的；现任的，在职的

参考例句：

• He defeated the incumbent governor by a large plurality.他以压倒多数票击败了现任州长。
• It is incumbent upon you to warn them.你有责任警告他们。

7 degenerated   

衰退，堕落，退化( degenerate的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• The march degenerated into a riot. 示威游行变成了暴动。
• The wide paved road degenerated into a narrow bumpy track. 铺好的宽阔道路渐渐变窄，成了一条崎岖不平的小径。

8 brutal   

adj.残忍的，野蛮的，不讲理的

参考例句：

• She has to face the brutal reality.她不得不去面对冷酷的现实。
• They're brutal people behind their civilised veneer.他们表面上温文有礼，骨子里却是野蛮残忍。

9 ethnic   

adj.人种的，种族的，异教徒的

参考例句：

• This music would sound more ethnic if you played it in steel drums.如果你用钢鼓演奏，这首乐曲将更具民族特色。
• The plan is likely only to aggravate ethnic frictions.这一方案很有可能只会加剧种族冲突。

10 turmoil   

n.骚乱，混乱，动乱

参考例句：

• His mind was in such a turmoil that he couldn't get to sleep.内心的纷扰使他无法入睡。
• The robbery put the village in a turmoil.抢劫使全村陷入混乱。

11 rift   

n.裂口，隙缝，切口；v.裂开，割开，渗入

参考例句：

• He was anxious to mend the rift between the two men.他急于弥合这两个人之间的裂痕。
• The sun appeared through a rift in the clouds.太阳从云层间隙中冒出来。

12 dire   

adj.可怕的，悲惨的，阴惨的，极端的

参考例句：

• There were dire warnings about the dangers of watching too much TV.曾经有人就看电视太多的危害性提出严重警告。
• We were indeed in dire straits.But we pulled through.那时我们的困难真是大极了，但是我们渡过了困难。

13 affected   

adj.不自然的，假装的

参考例句：

• She showed an affected interest in our subject.她假装对我们的课题感到兴趣。
• His manners are affected.他的态度不自然。

14 alleviate   

v.减轻，缓和，缓解(痛苦等)

参考例句：

• The doctor gave her an injection to alleviate the pain.医生给她注射以减轻疼痛。
• Nothing could alleviate his distress.什么都不能减轻他的痛苦。