VOA常速英语2008年-Conflict in Kenya Leaves Thousands of Homeless

By Cathy Majtenyi
IDP Camps in Kenya
17 April 2008
 

Kenya's post-election violence has left some 150,000 children homeless. The signing of a power-sharing agreement has helped to stabilize¹ the country, but many children still languish² in displaced persons' camps. Their education has been disrupted and in some cases stopped altogether. Many children struggle with the symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder⁴. Cathy Majtenyi visited camps across Kenya and filed this report for VOA.

Anne Gathoni recently enrolled⁵ at Arnesen Primary School in the town of Burnt Forest in Kenya's Rift⁶ Valley. The 12-year-old says she tries to concentrate on what the teacher is saying, but often ends up thinking about what happened to her and her family a few months ago.

"We came back from church on Sunday. After eating lunch, I could see smoke in the distance and I told my mother I thought houses were being burned in Burnt Forest. After some time, the attackers came and started attacking us,” Gathoni recalled. “The men tried to fight off the attackers, but were unsuccessful. After that, the women and children moved out of the houses, but we were all robbed. I fled with my mother."

Eleven-year-old Susan Waithaka's father was hacked⁷ to death during the mayhem. His body was dumped in a pit latrine, and later retrieved⁸ and given a proper burial. "I'm so worried. I get frightened," she says.

Susan and Anne are two of an estimated 150,000 children in Kenya displaced and traumatized by the violence that followed elections in December. The violence killed more than 1,000 people and drove up to 600,000 others from their homes.

The conflict had ethnic⁹ overtones, with certain groups burning and destroying the homes and businesses of other groups in  tensions that date back to colonial times.

Mental health experts say post-traumatic stress disorder is a widespread problem plaguing children who fled their homes during the upheaval¹⁰. Compounding their psychological distress¹¹ are the living conditions they endure in the camps. They are often overcrowded or short of food and other necessities.

As a result, teachers and counselors¹³ say many  children who have managed to continue their education are often unable to concentrate, or they exhibit behavioral problems.

Maina Ndegwa is head teacher at Arnesen Primary School in Burnt Forest. The school now educates children living in a nearby camp.

"They might decide to be absent any time, [or] come to school late. Most of them have lost hope, they just see as if the world has come to an end," says Ndegwa. "They just come at any time, they can absent themselves any time.  Sometimes they fake that they are sick, not to come to school."

At a camp in the Rift Valley town of Nakuru, children who entered a play therapy program in early January initially¹⁴ drew pictures of houses on fire, people being struck by arrows and other disturbing scenes.

The younger children similarly acted out such scenes,  says Elizabeth Mwarangu, a counselor¹² volunteering for the Kenya Red Cross.

"They were building guns. They were using the blocks to make models of guns, and then they would hold them and they would lie down and say, 'I'm going to shoot the warrior¹⁵, I'm going to shoot them,' [said] these small kids. And then the others would get the dolls and place a doll there and say, 'Oh, he is down,'" she added. 

Mwarangu says the way the younger children played with the toys and the pictures that the older children drew showed that they had repressed bitterness, anger, fear, desire for revenge and other intense emotions. Counselors say addressing these emotions now through play therapy and other programs is vital to ensuring the long-term mental and emotional health of those innocents caught up in the mayhem.

Child protection counselor Ruth Gichengi explained, "If they are helped immediately, in fact the children heal faster than the adults. When we put them on recreation games, we are there for them, we listen to them as they narrate¹⁶ the stories, they draw, we really keep them active. We also help the parents in effective communication, so that they know how to communicate to their children during this time of trauma³. It really works. They heal," she added.

She said the children that she works with have improved significantly since January.

1 stabilize   

vt.（使）稳定，使稳固，使稳定平衡；vi.稳定

参考例句：

• They are eager to stabilize currencies.他们急于稳定货币。
• His blood pressure tended to stabilize.他的血压趋向稳定。

2 languish   

vi.变得衰弱无力，失去活力，（植物等）凋萎

参考例句：

• Without the founder's drive and direction,the company gradually languished.没有了创始人的斗志与指引，公司逐渐走向没落。
• New products languish on the drawing board.新产品在计划阶段即告失败。

3 trauma   

n.外伤，精神创伤

参考例句：

• Counselling is helping him work through this trauma.心理辅导正帮助他面对痛苦。
• The phobia may have its root in a childhood trauma.恐惧症可能源于童年时期的创伤。

4 disorder   

n.紊乱，混乱；骚动，骚乱；疾病，失调

参考例句：

• When returning back,he discovered the room to be in disorder.回家后，他发现屋子里乱七八糟。
• It contained a vast number of letters in great disorder.里面七零八落地装着许多信件。

5 enrolled   

adj.入学登记了的v.[亦作enrol]( enroll的过去式和过去分词 )；登记，招收，使入伍（或入会、入学等），参加，成为成员；记入名册；卷起，包起

参考例句：

• They have been studying hard from the moment they enrolled. 从入学时起，他们就一直努力学习。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• He enrolled with an employment agency for a teaching position. 他在职业介绍所登了记以谋求一个教师的职位。 来自《简明英汉词典》

6 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。

7 hacked   

生气

参考例句：

• I hacked the dead branches off. 我把枯树枝砍掉了。
• I'm really hacked off. 我真是很恼火。

8 retrieved   

v.取回( retrieve的过去式和过去分词 )；恢复；寻回；检索（储存的信息）

参考例句：

• Yesterday I retrieved the bag I left in the train. 昨天我取回了遗留在火车上的包。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• He reached over and retrieved his jacket from the back seat. 他伸手从后座上取回了自己的夹克。 来自辞典例句

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 upheaval   

n.胀起，(地壳)的隆起；剧变，动乱

参考例句：

• It was faced with the greatest social upheaval since World War Ⅱ.它面临第二次世界大战以来最大的社会动乱。
• The country has been thrown into an upheaval.这个国家已经陷入动乱之中。

11 distress   

n.苦恼，痛苦，不舒适；不幸；vt.使悲痛

参考例句：

• Nothing could alleviate his distress.什么都不能减轻他的痛苦。
• Please don't distress yourself.请你不要忧愁了。

12 counselor   

n.顾问，法律顾问

参考例句：

• The counselor gave us some disinterested advice.顾问给了我们一些无私的忠告。
• Chinese commercial counselor's office in foreign countries.中国驻国外商务参赞处。

13 counselors   

n.顾问( counselor的名词复数 )；律师；（使馆等的）参赞；（协助学生解决问题的）指导老师

参考例句：

• Counselors began an inquiry into industrial needs. 顾问们开始调查工业方面的需要。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
• We have experienced counselors available day and night. ) 这里有经验的法律顾问全天候值班。） 来自超越目标英语 第4册

14 initially   

adv.最初，开始

参考例句：

• The ban was initially opposed by the US.这一禁令首先遭到美国的反对。
• Feathers initially developed from insect scales.羽毛最初由昆虫的翅瓣演化而来。

15 warrior   

n.勇士，武士，斗士

参考例句：

• The young man is a bold warrior.这个年轻人是个很英勇的武士。
• A true warrior values glory and honor above life.一个真正的勇士珍视荣誉胜过生命。

16 narrate   

v.讲，叙述

参考例句：

• They each narrate their own tale but are all inextricably linked together.她们各自讲述自己的故事，却又不可避免地联系在一起。
• He once holds the tear to narrate a such story to mine.他曾经含着泪给我讲述了这样的一个故事。