For the Children 为了孩子
——Audrey Hepburn 奥黛丽·赫本
[00:02.06]Up until some eighteen months ago
[00:04.77]before I was given the great privilege
[00:06.68]of becoming a volunteer for UNICEF
[00:09.46]I used to be overwhelmed
[00:11.14]by a sense of desperation
[00:12.64]and helplessness
[00:13.62]when watching television
[00:15.51]or reading about the indesCRIbable misery
[00:18.09]of the developing world's
[00:19.46]children and their mothers.
[00:22.29]If I feel less helpless today,
[00:25.15]it is because
[00:26.30]I have now seen what can be done
[00:28.28]and what is being done
[00:29.79]by UNICEF, by many other organizations
[00:32.29]and agencies, by the churches,
[00:34.62]by governments,
[00:35.95]and most of all,
[00:37.16]with very little help,
[00:38.63]by people themselves.
[00:40.92]And yet, we must do more
[00:43.19]about the alarming state
[00:44.65]of the children
[00:45.86]in the developing world
[00:47.52]many are only just surviving
[00:50.08]especially when we know
[00:51.55]that the finances needed
[00:52.87]are minimal
[00:53.96]compared to the global expenditure
[00:55.49]of this world,
[00:57.11]and when we know
[00:58.00]that less than half of one percent
[00:59.62]of today's world economy
[01:01.32]would be the total required
[01:03.01]to eradicate the worst aspects
[01:04.93]of poverty and to meet basic human needs
[01:08.01]over the next ten years.
[01:11.21]In other words,
[01:13.84]there is no deficit in human resources
[01:16.64]the deficit is in human will.
[01:20.72]The question I am most frequently asked is
[01:23.96]What do you really do for UNICEF
[01:27.73]Clearly, my task is to inform,
[01:31.32]to create awareness
[01:32.69]of the need of children.
[01:34.73]To fully understand the problems
[01:36.62]of the state of the world's children,
[01:38.92]it would be nice to be an expert
[01:40.64]on education, economics,
[01:42.54]politics, religious traditions, and cultures.
[01:46.17]I am none of these things,
[01:48.90]but I am a mother.
[01:50.72]There is unhappily a need
[01:52.55]for greater advocacy for children
[01:54.77]children haunted by undernourishment,
[01:57.61]disease and death.
[01:59.68]You do not have to be a "financial whiz"
[02:02.58]to look into so many little faces
[02:05.47]with diseased, glazed eyes
[02:07.36]and to know that this is
[02:09.04]the result of CRItical malnutrition,
[02:11.69]one of the worst symptoms
[02:12.80]of which is vitamin A deficiency
[02:15.17]that causes corneal lesions
[02:17.37]resulting in partial or total blindness,
[02:20.28]followed within a few weeks by death.
[02:24.15]Every year there are as many as 500,000
[02:28.91]such cases in countries
[02:30.53]like Indonesia, Bangladesh,
[02:32.75]India, the Philippines, Ethiopia.
[02:36.59]Today there are in fact,
[02:39.20]millions of children at risk
[02:41.27]of going blind.
[02:43.25]Little wonder
[02:44.01]that I and many other UNICEF volunteers
[02:46.67]travel the world
[02:47.74]to raise funds before it is too late,
[02:50.57]but also to raise awareness
[02:51.89]and to combat a different kind of darkness,
[02:54.61]a darkness people find themselves in
[02:56.98]through lack of information
[02:58.40]on how easy it is to reach out
[03:00.28]and keep these children.
[03:02.95]It costs eighty-four cents a year
[03:05.23]to stop a child from going blind
[03:08.01]the price of two vitamin A capsules.
[03:10.94]I have known UNICEF for a long time.
[03:15.26]For, almost forty-five years ago,
[03:18.09]I was one of the tens of thousands
[03:19.96]of starving children
[03:21.35]in war-ravaged Europe
[03:22.91]to receive aid from UNICEF,
[03:24.58]immediately after our Liberation.
[03:27.42]That liberation freed us from hunger,
[03:29.92]repression, and constant violence.
[03:32.96]We were reduced to near total poverty,
[03:35.32]as is the developing world today.
[03:39.06]For it is poverty
[03:40.06]that is at the root
[03:41.43]of all their suffering
[03:42.58]the not-having
[03:44.01]not having the means to help themselves.
[03:46.16]That is what UNICEF is all about
[03:48.83]helping people to help themselves
[03:50.94]and giving them the aid to develop.
[03:53.98]The effect of the monstrous burden of debt
[03:57.09]in the developing world
[03:58.46]has made the poor even poorer,
[04:00.64]and has fallen most heavily on the neediest.
[04:03.38]Those whom it has damaged the most
[04:05.22]have been the women and children.
[04:07.89]Unlike droughts, floods, or earthquakes,
[04:11.25]the tragedy of poverty
[04:12.86]cannot easily be captured
[04:14.45]by the media
[04:15.23]and brought to the attention
[04:16.34]of the public worldwide.
[04:18.56]It is happening not in any
[04:20.70]one particular place,
[04:21.91]but in slums and shanties
[04:23.83]and neglected rural communities
[04:25.45]across two continents.
[04:27.43]It is not happening
[04:29.41]at any one particular time,
[04:30.91]but over long years of increasing poverty,
[04:32.89]which have not been featured
[04:34.76]in the nightly news
[04:35.87]but which have changed the lives
[04:37.19]of many millions of people.
[04:39.33]And it is happening
[04:41.00]not because of any one visible cause,
[04:43.67]but because of
[04:44.50]an unfolding economic drama
[04:46.53]in which the industrialized nations
[04:48.46]play a leading part,
[04:50.32]which is spreading human misery
[04:51.84]and hardship on a scale
[04:53.00]and of a severity uNPRecedented
[04:55.23]in the postwar era.
[04:57.86]In Africa, for instance,
[04:59.15]in spite of national reforms,
[05:01.17]improved weather conditions,
[05:02.88]and a surge of their agricultural output,
[05:05.67]all their hard-earned gains
[05:06.89]have been undermined
[05:08.00]by international economic trends
[05:10.25]and a drastic fall in commodity prices.
[05:13.01]They are now compelled to return
[05:14.88]four times as much money
[05:16.44]as they were loaned!
[05:18.11]But the poorest sectors of society
[05:20.08]in the developing world
[05:21.44]are also suffering
[05:22.71]as a result of all
[05:23.93]too frequent misappropriation of funds,
[05:26.58]as well as the tremendous inequality
[05:28.75]in the distribution of land
[05:30.38]and other productive resources.
[05:33.40]UNICEF's business is children
[05:35.78]not the workings of the international economy.
[05:39.52]In its everyday work
[05:42.15]in over 100 developing nations,
[05:44.43]UNICEF is brought up
[05:46.10]against a face of today's
[05:47.67]international economic problems
[05:49.59]that is not seen
[05:50.71]in the corridors of financial power,
[05:52.93]not reflected in the statistics
[05:54.51]of debt service ratios,
[05:56.58]not seated at the
[05:57.90]conference tables of debt negotiations
[06:00.23]it is in the face of a child.
[06:03.36]It is the young child
[06:04.53]whose growing mind and body
[06:06.07]is susceptible to permanent damage
[06:07.60]from even temporary deprivation.
[06:10.62]The human brain and body
[06:12.36]are formed within the first five years of life,
[06:15.10]and there is no second chance.
[06:17.48]It is the young child
[06:19.05]whose individual development today,
[06:21.68]and whose social contribution tomorrow,
[06:23.90]are being shaped by the economics of now.
[06:27.29]It is the young child who is
[06:29.06]paying the highest of all prices.
[06:30.42]We cannot therefore ignore
[06:33.00]the economic issues
[06:34.18]which for so many millions
[06:35.92]of the world's poorest families
[06:37.70]have made the 1980s
[06:39.33]into a decade of despair.
[06:42.42]Today the heaviest burden
[06:44.70]of a decade of frenzied borrowing
[06:46.46]is falling not on the military,
[06:48.38]nor on those foreign bank accounts,
[06:50.61]nor on those
[06:51.94]who conceived the years of waste,
[06:53.98]but on the poor
[06:54.99]who are having to do
[06:56.01]without the bare necessities,
[06:57.84]on the women who do not have enough food
[07:00.03]to maintain their health,
[07:01.50]on the infants
[07:02.78]whose minds and bodies
[07:03.84]are being stunted
[07:04.69]because of untreated illnesses
[07:06.36]and malnutrition,
[07:07.58]and on children
[07:08.49]who are being denied their only opportunity
[07:10.41]ever to go to school.
[07:14.29]When the impact becomes visible
[07:16.17]in the rising death rates among children,
[07:18.30]then what has happened is simply
[07:20.22]an outrage against
[07:21.66]a large section of humanity.
[07:24.38]Nothing can justify it.
[07:26.35]The consensus now beginning to take shape
[07:28.58]is that the burden of debt
[07:29.94]must be lifted to a degree
[07:31.87]where the developing countries
[07:33.09]can cope with debt repayment,
[07:34.70]to the point where their economies
[07:36.82]can grow out of
[07:37.78]their overwhelming indebtedness,
[07:39.35]and set them on the road
[07:40.85]to recovery and real development.
[07:43.88]World population growth
[07:45.20]is beginning to be brought under control.
[07:48.18]Change is in prospect everywhere
[07:50.89]and if at this time
[07:51.96]there is the vision to use this opportunity
[07:54.08]creatively to see a brave new world
[07:56.58]and to dare to reach for it,
[07:58.90]there is a real possibility over
[08:00.48]the next ten years to begin
[08:02.06]to come to grips
[08:03.37]with the triad of fundamental problems
[08:05.39]which threaten mankind:
[08:07.78]the presence and the threat of war,
[08:09.34]the deterioration of the environment,
[08:11.67]and the persistence
[08:12.83]of the worst aspects of absolute poverty.
[08:17.62]Many of the great social changes
[08:20.55]of modern history
[08:21.66]the abolition of slavery,
[08:23.43]the ending of colonial rule,
[08:25.36]the isolation of apartheid,
[08:27.28]the increasing consensus on the environment,
[08:29.86]or the growing recognition
[08:31.60]of the rights of women
[08:33.18]have begun with rhetorical commitment
[08:35.63]which has eventually turned into action.
[08:38.21]In the 1990s it may at last
[08:40.84]be the turn of the child,
[08:42.51]and our dream for
[08:43.46]an international summit for children
[08:45.33]and ratification of the Convention
[08:47.15]on the Rights of the Child
[08:48.63]could become a reality.
[08:51.52]Forty thousand children
[08:52.65]still die every day-280,000 a week.
[08:57.35]No natural calamity,
[08:58.86]be it flood or earthquake,
[09:00.49]has ever claimed as many children's lives
[09:02.96]and this happens every week mostly
[09:06.20]in the silent emergency
[09:07.87]of preventable diseases
[09:09.44]like polio, tetanus, tuberculosis, measles,
[09:13.03]and the worst killer of all,
[09:15.01]dehydration from diarrhea
[09:17.39]caused by unclean drinking water
[09:18.61]and malnutrition.
[09:21.74]It costs five dollars
[09:24.01]to vaccinate a child for life,
[09:25.83]6 cents will prevent death
[09:27.85]from dehydration,
[09:29.39]and 84 cents per year
[09:31.01]will stop a child from going blind.
[09:33.86]How is it that governments
[09:34.99]spend so much on warfare
[09:36.73]and bypass the needs of their children,
[09:39.02]their greatest capital,
[09:40.44]their only hope for peace?
[09:43.48]I must admit to you
[09:44.64]that the magnitude of the task
[09:46.26]that UNICEF has undertaken
[09:47.93]sometimes overwhelms me,
[09:50.00]and I am saddened and frustrated
[09:51.78]when I stop to think
[09:52.76]of what we cannot do
[09:54.54]like change the world overnight
[09:56.70]or when I have to deal with
[09:57.82]the cynics of this world
[09:59.25]who argue,
[10:00.26]Is it morally right
[10:01.48]to save the lives of children
[10:02.92]who will only grow up
[10:03.97]to more suffering and poverty
[10:05.10]due to overpopulation?
[10:08.68]Letting children die
[10:10.02]is not the remedy to overpopulation;
[10:12.86]family planning and birth spacing is.
[10:16.04]Rapid population growth
[10:17.30]can be slowed
[10:18.16]by giving the world's poor
[10:19.38]a better life,
[10:20.70]giving them health,
[10:21.70]education, housing, nutrition, civil rights.
[10:25.80]These things are not free
[10:27.32]but available at a cost
[10:28.85]that developing countries can afford,
[10:31.12]given the assistance they need.
[10:33.50]China, Indonesia,
[10:35.07]Thailand, and Mexico have already proven
[10:37.39]that population can be slowed
[10:39.36]by working on public health education
[10:41.58]and family planning.
[10:43.86]The World Bank now forecasts
[10:46.54]that by the early 1990s
[10:48.25]the world should reach
[10:49.23]the historic turning point
[10:50.50]at which the annual increase
[10:52.27]in global population begins to decline.
[10:55.70]It is also true
[10:57.18]that in no country
[10:58.39]has the birth rate declined
[10:59.82]before infant deaths have declined.
[11:02.60]In other words,
[11:03.46]parents can plan
[11:04.63]to have two children
[11:05.59]if they know they will survive,
[11:07.37]rather than having six
[11:08.67]in the hopes that two will survive.
[11:11.45]That is why UNICEF is also
[11:13.23]so dedicated to
[11:14.28]educating and informing mothers
[11:16.12]in child care.
[11:17.99]For it is the mother who is
[11:19.16]still the best "caretaker" of her child,
[11:21.84]and UNICEF supports any amount
[11:23.57]of educational projects
[11:25.24]for women in the developing countries
[11:27.20]that relate directly to health and nutrition,
[11:29.44]sanitation and hygiene,
[11:31.33]education and literacy.
[11:34.70]So today I speak for those children
[11:36.97]who cannot speak for themselves:
[11:39.04]children who are going blind
[11:40.42]through lack of vitamins;
[11:42.39]children who are slowly
[11:43.35]being mutilated by polio;
[11:46.61]children who are wasting away
[11:48.33]in so many ways
[11:49.34]through lack of water;
[11:51.41]for the estimated 100 million street children
[11:54.04]in this world
[11:55.11]who have no choice
[11:56.07]but to leave home
[11:56.98]in order to survive,
[11:58.61]who have absolutely nothing
[11:59.98]but their courage and their smiles
[12:01.35]and their dreams;
[12:03.07]for children who have no enemies
[12:04.79]yet are invariably the first tiny victims
[12:07.16]of war
[12:08.64]wars that are no longer confined
[12:10.15]to the battlefield
[12:11.42]but which are being waged
[12:12.83]through terror and intimidation
[12:14.55]and massacre
[12:16.54]children who are therefore growing up
[12:18.21]surrounded by the horrors of violence
[12:20.79]for the hundreds of thousands of children
[12:22.67]who are refugees.
[12:24.79]The task that lies ahead for UNICEF
[12:26.52]is ever greater,
[12:28.24]whether it be repatriating
[12:29.76]millions of children in Afghanistan
[12:31.39]or teaching children how to play
[12:33.51]who have only learned how to kill.
[12:36.46]Charles Dickens wrote,
[12:38.20]In their little world,
[12:39.26]in which children have their existence,
[12:41.34]nothing is so finely perceived
[12:43.71]and so finely felt as injustice.
[12:47.84]Injustice which we can avoid
[12:49.53]by giving more of ourselves,
[12:51.76]yet we often hesitate
[12:52.82]in the face of such apocalyptic tragedy.
[12:56.26]Why, when the way
[12:57.37]and the low-cost means
[12:58.84]are there to safeguard
[13:00.33]and protect these children?
[13:02.05]It is for leaders, parents,
[13:03.71]and young people
[13:05.18]young people,
[13:05.90]who have the purity of heart
[13:07.48]which age sometimes tends to obscure
[13:09.46]to remember their own childhood
[13:11.57]and come to the rescue of those
[13:13.85]who start life against such heavy odds.
[13:17.90]Children are our most vital resource,
[13:20.75]our hope for the future.
[13:22.73]Until they not only can be assured
[13:24.60]of physically surviving
[13:26.07]the first fragile years of life,
[13:27.95]but are free of emotional,
[13:29.42]social and physical abuse,
[13:31.75]it is impossible
[13:32.61]to envisage a world
[13:33.97]that is free of tension and violence.
[13:36.24]But it is up to us to make it possible.
[13:39.78]UNICEF is a humanitarian institution,
[13:42.56]not a charitable organization.
[13:45.44]It deals in development,
[13:46.86]not in welfare,
[13:48.43]giving handouts to those waiting
[13:50.50]with their hands outstretched.
[13:52.21]On my travels to Ethiopia,
[13:54.09]Venezuela, Ecuador,
[13:55.61]Central America,
[13:56.77]Mexico, and the Sudan,
[13:58.79]I have seen no out-stretched hands,
[14:01.12]only a silent dignity
[14:02.89]and a longing to help themselves,
[14:04.51]given the chance.
[14:07.08]UNICEF's mandate is to protect every child
[14:09.31]against famine,
[14:10.68]thirst,
[14:11.44]sickness,
[14:12.19]abuse,
[14:12.80]and death.
[14:14.42]But today we are dealing with
[14:15.64]an even more ominous threat,
[14:17.60]man's inhumanity to man
[14:19.42]with the dark side of humanity
[14:21.50]that is polluting our skies and our oceans,
[14:23.83]destroying our forests
[14:25.40]and extinguishing
[14:26.43]thousands of beautiful animals.
[14:28.15]Are our children next?
[14:30.33]That is what we are up against.
[14:33.01]For it is no longer enough
[14:34.53]to vaccinate our children,
[14:36.04]to give them food and water,
[14:37.46]and only cure the symptoms
[14:39.45]of man's tendency
[14:40.35]to destroy everything we hold dear,
[14:42.07]everything life depends on,
[14:44.36]the very air we breathe,
[14:46.03]the earth that sustains us,
[14:47.75]and the most precious of all,
[14:49.98]our children.
[14:52.40]Whether it be famine in Ethiopia,
[14:54.65]excruciating poverty in Guatemala
[14:56.61]and Honduras,
[14:58.18]civil strife in El Salvador,
[15:00.10]or ethnic massacre in the Sudan,
[15:02.62]I saw but one glaring truth.
[15:05.01]These are not natural disasters,
[15:07.49]but man-made tragedies,
[15:09.26]for which there is only
[15:10.77]one man-made solution-peace.
[15:14.93]Even if this mammoth Operation Life-Line Sudan
[15:18.17]were only to achieve half its goal,
[15:20.50]due to the countless odds
[15:21.92]it is up against-in a vast country
[15:24.46]with no infrastructure,
[15:25.58]few roads to speak of,
[15:29.07]no communication system
[15:28.91]it will have succeeded,
[15:31.19]For not only will it
[15:32.86]have saved thousands of lives,
[15:34.58]but it will also have given the Sudan hope.
[15:37.46]The United Nations will
[15:38.74]have shown the world
[15:39.85]that only through corridors of tranquility
[15:41.87]can children be saved,
[15:43.89]that only through peace
[15:44.75]can man survive,
[15:46.37]and only through development
[15:47.43]will they survive,
[15:48.75]with dignity and a future.
[15:50.77]A future in which we can say
[15:52.43]we have fulfilled our human obligation.
[15:55.28]Your 1 percent is an example
[15:57.24]of 100 percent
[15:59.17]but all together a beautiful example
[16:00.95]to us of love and caring.
[16:03.52]Together there is nothing we cannot do.
[16:06.15]Thank you!
