VOA慢速英语2017 马拉维女性拒绝早婚:让女孩儿们上学

Malawi Woman Resists Early Marriage, Provides Education to Girls

Girls on the Move Secondary 1 School is a symbol of hope for girls from poor families in Malawi. The school is free and welcomes young girls who would traditionally be forced to marry.

马拉维有一所学校名为女孩之家，这里是寒门女孩们希望所在。这所学校不收学费，专收那些被传统家庭逼婚的女孩。

“My parents could not afford to pay my school tuition 2…because they are poor and don’t work,”said Emily Galenta, a student at the school.

“我爸妈交不起我的学费，因为他们没钱，又没有正式的工作，”这所学校的学生埃米莉·格兰塔如是说道。

“They are only peasant farmers who don’t earn enough,” she added.

“他们只是农民，赚的不多，”她补充说道。 

In the southeastern African nation, more than half of young girls are married before they complete secondary school.

马拉维这个东南非国家里，半数以上的女孩在读完中学之前就结婚了。 

Memory Chazeza Mdyetseni began the school after she resisted relatives’ demands she marry young following the death of her parents.

梅默里·谢泽扎·耶瑟妮也上了这所学校，因为她不想在父母去世后迫于亲戚的压力而结婚。 

Three years later, the uncle who paid for her education died, and she went to live with her grandfather.

三年后，为她交学费的叔父也去世了，所以她改跟祖父一起生活。 

“I was the only girl in the village, and when I asked where the other girls were, I was told they were all married.And in this small village, the expectation was that I was the next girl to get married,” she said.

“我是村里唯一还没结婚的女孩儿，每次我问其他女孩在干嘛的时候，大人们都告诉我，她们都结婚了。而在这样的小村子里，大家对我的期望就是我能成为下一个结婚的女孩儿，”她如是说道。

Mdyetseni began working as a volunteer teacher in an all-girls secondary school that had just opened near her village.She became friends with a volunteer teacher from Canada who raised enough money to pay Mdyetseni’s college tuition.

耶瑟妮在一所女校支教，这所学校就在她村庄的附近。她跟来自加拿大的一位支教老师成了朋友，那位老师为耶瑟妮攒够了大学的学费。

After receiving a degree in Bible 3 studies, Mdyetseni and her Canadian friend, Christie Johnson,discussed the idea of starting an all-girls secondary school.

读完了圣经学的学位后，耶瑟妮和这位加拿大的克里斯蒂·约翰逊开始研究开办一所女校的事儿。 

“It’s such an achievement for a girl child,” she said, adding that a girl with an education has many more opportunities.

耶瑟妮表示，“这对女孩儿来说是好事儿，”她还补充说，受了教育的女孩有更多的机会。 

The school gets most of it funding from Rotary 4 Clubs in Canada, where Johnson now lives.More than 800 girls have gone through the school’s program since 2007.Some are now working as teachers while others have gone on to universities.

这所学校的大部分资助都来自加拿大的扶轮社，那里也是约翰逊住的地方。自2007年以来，800个女孩儿参加了这所学校的项目。其中的一些人现在已经做了老师，还有一些人进入了大学的校园。

Manesi Samuel, a graduate,said that without the school she would be married to a subsistence farmer and have several children – a life she did not want.

上了大学的玛尼西·撒母耳表示，如果没有这所学校，她就要嫁给一个仅能糊口的农民然后生儿育女了——但这并不是她想要的生活。

Instead, Samuel studied economics 5 at the University of Oklahoma in the United States.She plans to start an organization that will bring employment 6 to her village.

不过，她还是得以在美国奥克拉荷马大学读经济学。她想开办个组织，增加她老家村庄的就业。 

Recently, financial problems have forced the school to enroll 7 some students who pay tuition.

最近，这所学校迫于一些财务问题开始招收一些交学费的学生。 

Mdyetseni plans to open a few more schools using the same model.Someday she dreams of opening colleges for Malawi girls.

耶瑟妮计划再开办一些同样模式的学校。她还希望有一天能为马拉维的女孩们开设大学。 

Words in This Story

tuition - n. money that is paid to a school for the right to study there

achievement - n. something that is done through hard work

Rotary Club - n. an international organization of businesspeople who raise money to help the sick or poor