雅思阅读丨战乱中的“圣诞老人”

本期雅思阅读我们要为大家介绍拉米•阿德汗，一名走私玩具的叙利亚裔芬兰人，与我们印象中的走私者不同，他被人们成为“叙利亚圣诞老人”，他冒着死亡的威胁将这些玩具带到阿勒颇，以帮助这座被围困的城市中的孩子们对抗战争的恐惧。

接下来就跟着长沙新航道小编一起来看看这位“圣诞老人”都为战争中的孩子做了些什么吧。

For the past five years, 44-year-old Finish-Syrian Rami Adham has dedicated his life to helping the children of Aleppo cope with the horrors of war by smuggling toys into the besieged city.

Rami Adhman was born in Aleppo, but moved to Finland with his family in 1989. When the Syrian civil war started, in 2012, he decided he had to help the children of his native city in any way he could. In the beginning, he never planned on taking toys, thinking that food, medicine, and drinking water were the things that mattered most. However, on one occasion of crossing the border, his daughter told him she wanted to donate her toys to the kids of Aleppo. He took the girl up on her offer, and upon seeing the joy on the Syrian children’s faces when he took the toys out of his backpack, he decided to make them a priority on his subsequent runs.

Adham soon became known as the “toy smuggler” and the “Santa of Syria”. He has so far made the journey from Helsinki to Aleppo 28 times, and doesn’t plan on stopping until the war ends. Until two years ago, he crossed into Syria through the border with Turkey, but after it closed down, he started crossing into the war-torn country illegally, carrying an 80kg bag of toys on his back all the way to Aleppo. It’s a dangerous trip that he has to make by foot, because it’s dangerous to drive through rebel-held and government-held districts. But those aren’t the only forces he has to avoid, as he claims that his humanitarian efforts have also made him a wanted man by ISIS and Shia militias in Syria.

However, the dangers he faces on his every trip aren’t enough to stop the toy smuggler. His mission is just too important. “Right now, Syrian kids are just facing death and insecurity and constant threats. Toys are important,” he told The Telegraph.

“I can’t describe the emotions of the kids,” Adham recently told ZoominTV. “It’s something, as if they have got a new friend that can only be their friend. In this time of heavy bombings, there’s nothing we can do. At least we can bring some joy to these kids.

“Kids keep on coming to me and saying ‘You see all these toys I have? These are all from you, I’ve been collecting them. I have a family of toys now.’ It’s just beautiful,” he adds.

The father of six smuggles about 1,000 toys weighing 80kg on his every trip to Aleppo. They range from teddy bears, to Barbie dolls and action figures, depending on what he receives from donors back home in Helsinki. Regardless of what they receive, the children are always happy to have something new to play with.

He currently has a campaign running on GoFundMe, trying to raise €100,000. If successful, he plans on using the money to build schools in Syria close to Turkish borders, where they would be safe from constant bombing.

Asked what message the people still trapped in Aleppo have for the rest of the world, the toy smuggler said that they feel like everyone has abandoned them. These are people, not just numbers and statistics. “They want to know that the outside world one thing: how much death is enough for the world to react. Is it 200,000, 300,000, 700,000, a million? When is it enough until the world reacts? They cannot wait forever,” Adham concluded.

在过去5年间，现年44岁的叙利亚裔芬兰人拉米•阿德汗致力于向阿勒颇走私玩具，以帮助这座被围困的城市中的孩子们对抗战争的恐惧。

拉米•阿德汗出生在阿勒颇，但在1989年和家人移居芬兰。2012年叙利亚内战开始时，他决定竭尽全力帮助家乡的孩子。起初，阿德汗认为食品、药品和饮用水是最重要的物品，他从未打算携带玩具。然而，在一次越境时，阿德汗的女儿对他说，她想要把自己的玩具捐给阿勒颇的孩子们。阿德汗接受了女儿的提议，当他把玩具从背包中取出时，他看到了叙利亚孩子们脸上的喜悦。于是他决定在今后的偷运中把玩具放在首位。

阿德汗很快被人称为“玩具走私者”和“叙利亚圣诞老人”。截至目前，他已经进行了28次从赫尔辛基到阿勒颇的旅行，而且战争结束前他都不打算停止。直到两年前，他还可以从土耳其穿越边境进入叙利亚，但是自从土叙边境关闭后，他开始非法越境进入这个饱受战争摧残的国家，背上背着一包80公斤重的玩具一路前往阿勒颇。他不得不步行完成这趟危险的旅行，因为开车穿过叛军控制区和政府控制区非常危险。但是阿德汗不仅需要躲避这些势力，据他说他的人道主义活动已经让他成为伊斯兰国组织和叙利亚什叶派民兵组织的通缉目标。

不过，每趟旅程中面临的危险不足以阻止这名玩具走私者，他的任务实在太重要了。阿德汗对《电讯报》说，“现在，叙利亚的孩子们正面临着死亡、安全问题和持续的威胁，玩具真的很重要。”

“我无法描述孩子们的情绪，”阿德汗近日对ZoominTV表示，“这种情绪就好像是他们得到了可以成为朋友的新伙伴。在狂轰滥炸的时候，我们什么也做不了。至少我们可以为那些孩子带去一些欢乐。”

他还说，“孩子们不停地来到我身边说‘你看到我拥有的所有玩具了吗?它们都是你给的，我一直收藏着它们，现在我有一个玩具家族了。’这很美好。”

阿德汗是6个孩子的父亲，他在每次阿勒颇之行中走私约1000个玩具，重达80公斤。这些玩具多种多样，从泰迪熊到芭比娃娃和人形公仔，取决于他在赫尔辛基接收到什么样的捐赠。不论收到什么，孩子们都很开心能有新的玩具可以玩。

目前，阿德汗已经在GoFundMe网站上发起了一项活动，设法筹集10万欧元。一旦成功，他打算用这笔钱在叙利亚临近土耳其边境的地方建学校，那里没有遭到持续轰炸的危险。

当被问及困在阿勒颇的人们想向外界传达什么讯息时，这位玩具走私者说他们觉得被所有人抛弃了。这是人，不仅仅是数字和统计数据。“他们想知道一件外面世界的事情：多少人死亡才能让世界作出反应，是20万、30万、70万还是100万?到什么时候世界才能有所反应?他们不能永远等下去。”阿德汗最后说道。

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