时间:2019-01-13 作者:英语课 分类:2007年VOA标准英语(九月)


英语课
By Nick Wadhams
Nairobi
24 September 2007

Kenya is hosting Africa's first-ever conference about the sexual abuse of children, a problem that has become one of the widest-spread and most troubling issues on the continent. Nick Wadhams has the story for VOA from Nairobi.


More than 400 delegates gathered here for the start of the three-day conference, which is meant to help governments and rights groups come up with ideas to fight the sexual abuse of children.


In a speech opening the conference, Kenyan Vice 1 President Moody 2 Awori said society is in a state of moral decay, and that children are increasingly at risk of being sold, or selling themselves, into prostitution. That's a frequent problem in urban areas and along the coast, which are destinations for foreign sex tourists.


Yet Mr. Awori also said that sexual abuse has some roots in traditional practices in Kenya. Some communities encourage children to marry very young despite national laws meant to stop the practice. And studies show that most children are abused by people they know well -- members of their communities or of their own families.


Delegates said that the problem must be tackled by the government first, but that it's the entire community's responsibility to protect children.


"The government has to start by legislation, and apart from the legislation, the society as a whole shall be committed," said Delegate Clement 3 Ostinis, who attended the conference from Liberia. "We need to bring ourselves together to understand that the child of Africa need to be developed and we should not destroy their future. So the society, the family, the government and everybody we must put hands together to make sure that the African child is properly protected."


Recent studies have shown just how prevalent the sexual abuse of children really is across Africa. In Zimbabwe, for example, one study found that half of all rape 4 cases involved children under 15 years old.


In one district in Uganda, meanwhile, one in three schoolgirls and one in six schoolboys reported having been sexually abused, many by teachers.


Ranya Sharawi of Sudan told VOA News that one problem was simply that some African societies do not understand what child abuse is, or how to keep it from happening.


"I think first there should be advocacy for what is child abuse awareness 5 for what is child abuse," said Sharawi. "Second, I think the legislation it is very important, and third I think we should work together, all Africa in the same issue, so that we can raise and we can find solutions."


Some delegates at the conference say child abuse in Africa is linked to poverty. Children sell themselves for sex or move away to live with distant relatives, who abuse them.




n.坏事;恶习;[pl.]台钳,老虎钳;adj.副的
  • He guarded himself against vice.他避免染上坏习惯。
  • They are sunk in the depth of vice.他们堕入了罪恶的深渊。
adj.心情不稳的,易怒的,喜怒无常的
  • He relapsed into a moody silence.他又重新陷于忧郁的沉默中。
  • I'd never marry that girl.She's so moody.我决不会和那女孩结婚的。她太易怒了。
adj.仁慈的;温和的
  • A clement judge reduced his sentence.一位仁慈的法官为他减了刑。
  • The planet's history contains many less stable and clement eras than the holocene.地球的历史包含着许多不如全新世稳定与温和的地质时期。
n.抢夺,掠夺,强奸;vt.掠夺,抢夺,强奸
  • The rape of the countryside had a profound ravage on them.对乡村的掠夺给他们造成严重创伤。
  • He was brought to court and charged with rape.他被带到法庭并被指控犯有强奸罪。
n.意识,觉悟,懂事,明智
  • 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。
学英语单词
acess
acetycorynoline
adapt circumstance
adding box
air one's dirty laundry
albedo of scattering
alomin
answer key
back-matter
biose
Borden's test
boy-crazy
Brewster's law of photo-elasticity
brillat
butyl o-benzoylbenzoate
cabbage butterfly
chamaeleonidaes
channa gachua
chop out
colo(u)r difference acuity
consign sth to mothballs
continuous concrete mixer
cotinines
coupling link(coupling rod)
Darboux's formula
deciphering code
decyclic acid
depression of water table
direct overwrite magneto-optical disk
dumblings
Egyptian splenomegaly
eight-miler
enterobacteriacea
epitaxial diffuse
erethism
extracta
farm land
gas van
government purchase multiplier
grammic
Gravimun
gulamenta
hyacinthoidess
hypo-irritability
ice wedge cast
incoherent infrared arrangement
input/output parity interrupt
inspecting yard
Isodon rubescens
jardini
kratochvil
load restoration
love-duets
maude
mengite
mercapturic
meroveches
minimum security
multioffice exchange
musculus extensor digitorum communis
mushroom head screw
near earth orbit
neurothemis fulvia
nothing new under the sun
nuttree
obstruction marker
ordonnances
outer-suburban
panki
paritorie
plicating suture
pole extension
regional jet
relay valve
repairing tool
repeated dose
representative sampling
restored rubber
Rineyville
rope-suspended hoist
ruthenio-
Saudi Arabia
scissor junction
screen attribute byte
Semana Santa
sitdowner
st. john the baptists
subclass ophiuridas
suspended-level viscometer
synchronous transfer orbit
tax someone's powers to the utmost
torus manus
triangular bandage
trochus hanleyanus
tumor plop
tuned resonant circuit
unfreshness
uvalica
violate labor discipline
vrej
windowless electron multiplier
work-up