外刊双语：为什么津巴布韦的未成年母亲难以接受教育？

原文标题：
Zimbabwe’s pregnant schoolgirls
We want to stay at school
It is still a struggle for girls with babies to continue their education
津巴布韦怀孕的女学生
我们想上学
有宝宝的女学生很难再继续接受教育

Why teenage mothers in Zimbabwe struggle to get educated
Stigma and cost matter more than liberal laws
为什么津巴布韦的未成年母亲难以接受教育
耻辱和教育成本比法律更重要

[Paragraph 1]
BRILLIANT NDLOVU has never really known childhood. Since the age of seven she has headed her household in Tsholotsho, a town in rural western Zimbabwe, after her parents went to work abroad.
布莱恩·恩德洛夫从未体验过童年的美好。她的父母在国外打工，于是她从7岁开始就撑起了整个家，她家住津巴布韦西部的乡村小镇茨洛特肖。

The oldest of five, she scraped a living growing crops while trying to keep up with her schoolwork.
她是五个孩子中最大一个，在努力跟上学业的同时，还要种植庄稼勉强糊口。

But in 2020 the covid-19 pandemic struck, coming shortly after a devastating drought. Farmers could not afford to pay child labourers like Ms Ndlovu.
但在2020年，一场毁灭性的干旱之后，新冠接踵而至。农民付不起童工的工资，恩德洛夫就是童工中的一员。

“So I looked for a man to help support my family,” she recalls. She found one who demanded sex in exchange for money. Aged 17, she got pregnant.
她回忆道：“所以我找了一个男人来帮助养家糊口。”她以性换取金钱。17岁时，她怀孕了。

[Paragraph2]
Ms Ndlovu was one of 4,770 Zimbabwean girls to drop out of school in 2020 because of pregnancy, up from about 3,000 the year before, according to government statistics. The true number may be higher.
根据政府统计，2020年有4770名津巴布韦女孩因怀孕而辍学，恩德洛夫就是其中之一，而2019年这一数字约为3000。真实数字可能更高。

Siqinisweyinkosi Mhlanga, who runs Orphan’s Friend, a community centre in Tsholotsho where Ms Ndlovu now spends her days, says that there may be ten times more school dropouts in her province than the official tally.
姆兰加在茨洛特肖社区中心经营一家“孤儿之友”机构（恩德洛夫现在就在这里），她说她所在区域的辍学人数可能是官方统计数字的10倍。

In August 2020 Zimbabwe’s government amended the Education Act to prohibit schools from expelling pregnant girls, joining a growing club of African countries that are letting pregnant teenagers continue with their education.
2020年8月，津巴布韦政府修订了《教育法案》，禁止学校开除怀孕学生。该国加入了逐渐壮大的非洲国家俱乐部，俱乐部旨在让怀孕女学生继续接受教育。

A third of Zimbabwean women marry before they are 18.
津巴布韦有1/3的妇女在18岁之前结婚。

[Paragraph 3]
Previously Zimbabwe’s education minister had described student pregnancy as a “misdemeanour of a serious nature”, punishable by expulsion.
此前，津巴布韦教育部长曾将学生怀孕描述为“严重的不良行为”，会被学校开除。

But the amendment “didn’t make any difference”, says Ms Mhlanga.
但姆兰加女士表示，《教育修正案》“没有起任何作用”。

In 2021, after teenage pregnancies rose during the covid lockdown, the number of pregnancy-related dropouts rose to 5,985, according to official statistics.
2021年新冠封禁期间未成年少女怀孕情况增加，据官方统计，与怀孕有关的辍学人数增至5985人。

[Paragraph 4]
Stigma and cost, rather than laws, push girls out of school.
女孩辍学是因为耻辱感和教育成本，而不是法律。

When they fall pregnant their families often “don’t accept that girls can excel”, says Samkeliso Tshuma, the founder of The Girls Table, an NGO in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe’s second city, that promotes girls’ rights.
萨姆凯利索·祖马说，当女孩怀孕的时候，她们的家人往往“不相信女孩会脱颖而出”。祖马是津巴布韦第二大城市布拉瓦约的非政府组织“The Girls Table”的创始人，该组织致力于提高女孩们的权利。

Most girls drop out of school before teachers even know they are pregnant.
大多数女孩在老师知道她们怀孕之前就辍学了。

[Paragraph 5]
The minority who persevere soon run into other barriers.
坚持学习的少数女孩子也会遇到其他障碍。

When a girl called Happiness became pregnant at 15, she told her parents: “I’m not stopping school.”
一个叫“幸福”的女孩15岁就怀孕了，那时她告诉父母：“我不会辍学。”

They supported her until she failed her exams, a month after giving birth.
她的父母支持她学习，直到她生完孩子一个月后考试不及格，学习也终止了。

They didn’t have enough money to pay for her to resit them, so she lost the chance to get the highest school-leaving certificate which would have qualified her for entry to a university.
父母没有足够的钱来支付她补考的费用，因此她没有机会取得高中毕业证书，而这张证书是大学入学凭证。

[Paragraph 6]
The average rural household spends $3.23 a month on education.
农村家庭平均每月在教育上花费3.23美元。

For Zimbabweans living below the poverty line (38% of them in 2019, up from 23% in 2011), that is quite a chunk of their income.
对于生活水平在贫困线以下的津巴布韦人来说（2019年为38%，2011年为23%），这占他们收入很大一部分。

In the first half of this year more than half of children were turned away from school because of non-payment of fees. Pregnant girls are often the first to lose out.
今年上半年，一半以上的儿童因未支付学费而被拒学。怀孕的女孩往往是首先出局的人。

And school can be a hostile place for them. Some complain that boys tease them, saying they smell of milk.
学校对她们来说可能是一个充满敌意的地方。一些女孩诉说着男孩们对她们的嘲笑，称她们身上有奶味。

（恭喜读完，本篇英语词汇量553左右）
原文出自：2022年10月22日《TE》Middle East & Africa版块。

精读笔记来源于：自由英语之路
本文翻译整理: Irene本文编辑校对: Irene
仅供个人英语学习交流使用。

【补充资料】（来自于网络）
2020年8月，津巴布韦总统批准了津巴布韦议会通过的禁止驱逐怀孕学生的《教育法修正案》。修正案的内容是：“任何学生不得因怀孕或不缴纳学费而被学校开除。”议会教育组合委员会主席说，新颁布的法律将增加女孩接受教育的机会，“通过这项修正法案很重要，因为它对赋予女孩受教育的权利。这将有效地解决性别差异问题。”

 
【重点句子】（3 个）
A third of Zimbabwean women marry before they are 18.
津巴布韦有1/3的妇女在18岁之前结婚。

Stigma and cost, rather than laws, push girls out of school.
女孩辍学是因为耻辱感和教育成本，而不是法律。

The average rural household spends $3.23 a month on education.
农村家庭平均每月在教育上花费3.23美元。