英語美文朗讀 第547期 The power of Education

This is such an exciting day for us, because it marks the beginning of a new era in my home country Colombia. Most of you may know me as an artist, as an entertainer, and that's indeed my calling and what I've been doing since I was 13 years old.

 

今天，是一個激動人心的日子，因為它代表著，我的家鄉(xiāng)哥倫比亞，進入了一個新的階段。你們大多數(shù)人可能知道，我是個藝術家或者藝人。沒錯，我從13歲就開始夢想成為一個藝術家，我實現(xiàn)了夢想，并且一直在這條道路上努力著。

 

But I never would have imagined when I started out that my work as an artist would end up being the vehicle for me to serve my greater purpose in life of working towards eradicating poverty through the power of Education.

但是，我從來沒有想過，我的藝術家事業(yè)，會幫助我實現(xiàn)更偉大的人生夢想，那就是，我想通過教育的力量來消除貧困。

 

As a Colombian citizen, inequality as a concept that sadly one becomes very familiar with at a very young age. It's a country like many others in Latin America where a few have a lot. A lot have almost nothing and where if you're born poor, you will almost certainly die poor.

不幸的是，作為一個哥倫比亞公民，我從很小就懂得了什么是不公平。哥倫比亞，和其他很多拉丁美洲國家一樣，是一個貧富不均的國家。在哥倫比亞，一小部分人，掌握著巨額的財富，而很多人卻幾乎一無所有。在這里，如果你出身貧困，那你一輩子都會窮困潦倒。

 

Where people don't access equal opportunities, and because of that generation after generation, after generation live trapped in the same vicious cycle fed by prejudice and inaction.

在這里，因為偏見和不作為，人們得到的機會是不平等的，一代又一代，就這樣不斷惡性循環(huán)。

 

Growing up in my country when I was around eight years old, I remember I saw kids my age who, instead of being in school, were already working in the streets, were barefoot in the park. Kids like me whose reality was completely different than mine only because of the circumstances into which they were born.

我就在這樣的環(huán)境里長大。我記得在8歲的時候，我看見和我年紀相仿的孩子，他們不去上學，而是在街上打工，他們光著腳丫待在公園里。像我一樣的孩子，他們的生活和我的生活完全不同，因為他們的成長環(huán)境太差了。

 

It was really hard for me to accept that, to accept that something so unjust didn't have a solution. There had to be something that could be done. So, I often asked myself why the adults, around me were so resigned to the fact that these kids who were just like me or even their own children, were living in a parallel reality so different and so cruel.

對于我而言，這是難以接受的。這樣不公平的事情，居然沒有解決辦法?？隙ㄓ修k法解決這個問題！所以，我經(jīng)常問自己，我身邊的大人們，他們看到那些和我相似的孩子，甚至是他們自己的孩子，大家同在一片土地上生活，但有人面對的現(xiàn)實和其他人那么不一樣，這多么殘酷啊，這些大人為什么能對此無動于衷？

 

As Kofi Annan put it, poverty is intolerable in a world of plenty, so as soon as I had some success, the first thing I wanted to do was to invest as many resources I could into what later would become the most meaningful project of my life, working for children.

正如Kofi Annan所言，在一個富裕的世界里，我們不能忍受貧困的存在。所以，在我取得了一些成功之后，我想做的第一件事，就是盡可能地投資，而我投資的項目，后來變成了我人生中最有意義的項目，那就是為孩子們而努力。

 

So I set out to find a team, a team of people, who dream big and worked hard and thought like me to help me right the wrongs that I had witnessed throughout my entire childhood, and that's when our foundation The Barefoot Foundation, ‘Pies Descalzos Fundacion' was born.

所以，我開始行動，組建團隊，團隊成員們有著偉大的夢想，他們努力奮斗，他們的價值觀和我一樣，我們一起努力，去改變那些我從小到大看到的糟糕的事。就這樣，我們的基金會成立了，它的名字是The Barefoot Foundation（西語Pies Descalzos Fundacion，中文可譯作光腳丫基金會）。

 

I knew, and I was only 18 years old then, but I knew that I wanted to focus on children and improving their lives, but I didn't know where to start. So, I really felt that I needed to learn what the roots of inequality and low social mobility were.

雖然那時我才18歲，但是，我知道，我想努力改善孩子們的生活，但是我不知道從何開始。所以，我覺得我需要找到不平等的根源，找到社會階層固化的根源。

 

So, I decided to study the reasons why children were working in the streets, or why some children were being recruited by the violent organizations, like the paramilitary or the guerrillas, why were so many children suffering from chronic malnutrition, and I realized that most of the issues that children face in my country had and have a common denominator, the lack of access to quality education.

因此，我決定，我要研究一下，為什么有孩子在街上打工，為什么有軍事組織或者游擊隊雇傭孩子，為什么這么多孩子長期營養(yǎng)不良。我意識到，在我的國家，孩子們面臨的問題的成因，都有一個共性，那就是，他們沒有接受良好的教育。

 

To me, it became crystal clear that education was a surest way to give all these kids the best fighting chance of improving their circumstances in life, because education is the great equalizer.

對于我來說，一切都很清楚了。教育，才能幫助孩子們贏得改變人生的機會，因為教育能夠最有效地消除不平等。

 

When I started building schools in Colombia, we chose the most remote areas, areas where there was literally nothing, no infrastructure, no paved roads, no electricity, no potable water, and we decided to build in those places but not only build schools but state-of-the-art schools.

我在哥倫比亞開始建學校的時候，我們選擇了最偏遠的地區(qū)，這里幾乎什么都沒有，沒有基礎設施，沒有平坦的道路，沒有電，沒有飲用水。在這里，我們不僅建學校，而且建的是最先進的學校。

 

Schools with comprehensive models that included ECD programs, school feeding programs, parent and teacher training, and another very important part is we've decided to engage the government as a strategic partner, and made it nearly impossible for them to say no to doing their part by showing them results through our holistic model that really proved to work.

這些學校有全面的配備，有早期教育項目，有飲食項目，有父母訓練和教師訓練項目。另外，很重要一點的是，我們決定讓政府作為戰(zhàn)略伙伴參與進來。為了確保政府能夠參與，我們向他們展示我們設計的全面發(fā)展模式的成果，讓他們知道這個模式是有效的。

 

We noticed that as soon as a school is built in those places, everything is transformed. The improvements to the infrastructure were jaw-dropping. Electricity, and potable water were made available, made accessible. Roads were paved, malnutrition plummeted, but the best part of all is the academic results.

我們注意到，在那些地區(qū)，一旦建了學校，一切都改變了。基礎設施得到極大的提升，效果驚人。電，飲用水都有了，孩子們都能用得上。道路鋪平了，營養(yǎng)不良的情況明顯減少，但是，最令人欣慰的，是孩子們的學業(yè)成績。

 

The kids really responded academically, and now those kids who could have been recruited by the guerrillas or paramilitaries or that could have had a completely different outcomes for their lives, they're now on their way to the university and thriving in their communities. Some of them are athletes. Some of them are professionals.

孩子們的學業(yè)成績真的發(fā)生了變化。如今，這些本可能會被游擊隊或者軍事組織招走的孩子，這些人生結局本來會完全不同的孩子，他們正在朝大學走去，他們正在茁壯成長。有的孩子成為了運動員，有的孩子成為了教授。