環(huán)球英語—861：Precious Jewels

Voice 1
Welcome to Spotlight. I'm Colin Lowther.
Voice 2
And I'm Mike Procter. This programme uses a special English method of broadcasting. It is easier for people to understand - no matter where in the world they live.
Voice 1
It is Sunday evening in Jinja, Uganda, East Africa. A bus arrives at a school. It is holiday time but seventy children get off the bus and go into the school. The children are very quiet. Some of them look frightened - but the adults who meet them are very kind and gentle. The adults know that soon the children will return home happy and laughing.
The children will stay at the school for a week. But they will not be doing normal school work. They will be having special classes. This is the start of the 'Ang Tulay' programme.
Voice 2
Ang Tulay means 'The Bridge' in the Filipino language. It is a series of studies that can help change people's lives. It is as if they are walking over a bridge from sadness to happiness. The Ang Tulay programme was developed in the Philippines. It is the work of an organisation called Precious Jewels Ministry – PJM for short. PJM believes every child is like a jewel of very great value - a 'precious jewel'. It believes that children develop and grow best in a loving family environment. But many children do not have this, for all sorts of reasons. Maybe their parents are dead or too sick to care for them. Maybe they have lived through a war and family members have been killed. Or it could be that the child is facing death from a terrible disease.
Voice 1
Precious Jewels Ministry tries to help children and families who are dealing with major problems like these. Ang Tulay is one of the methods it uses. The Ang Tulay studies help people to deal with harmful emotions like anger, fear, sadness and hurt. Such emotions often come after terrible experiences. They can remain in a person's heart and mind for many years. They can prevent someone from living a happy life even after the bad experiences have ended.
Ang Tulay was a great success in the Philippines. But PJM believed that it could be used in other countries too. So in 2006, the Ang Tulay team began to develop the work in Uganda.
Voice 2
In Uganda many people need this kind of help, especially children. For twenty years the Lord's Resistance Army was fighting against the Ugandan government. This rebel army forced children to become soldiers. Some of them were forced to kill their own parents. Young girls were forced to marry the rebel soldiers. These children experienced terrible things.
The war is over but the memories remain. The children live with fear and pain and anger because of what they had to do. Some children are rejected by their families when they try to return home. Other children need help to deal with great sadness because their parents were killed in the war or have died from the effects of AIDS.
Voice 1
The PJM team went to Uganda. They met local people in their homes to better understand Ugandan culture. They changed the Ang Tulay teaching materials to make them fit local needs. Then they trained new Ugandan teachers. Teachers must be trained well because the job they do is very hard. They need to have great love for the children and to understand the situations the children have experienced. The teachers say that their Christian faith plays a very important part in the way they deal with the children.
Voice 2
The Ang Tulay programme starts by teaching the children that God made each one of them and he loves each one of them. Later on the first day, the children learn to recognize and understand the emotions of hurt, anger or rejection that they feel.
On the second day they look at the problem of sadness. Many of the children have lost their parents or other family members. The children share their particular experiences concerning families. Later that day they learn how to deal with their painful emotions. They learn how to release their anger and hurt without harming themselves or other people.
Voice 1
The Ang Tulay teachers use songs, pictures and stories to help the children understand these new ideas. All the material they use is based on the teaching of the Christian Bible.
Voice 2
The third day of the programme is especially important. This is the day the children can cross the bridge from sadness to happiness. First they look at how fear can kill all hope for the future. Maybe they are afraid that the bad things they have experienced will come again. Maybe they are afraid of the future because they cannot see it. But if they continue to live in fear they will never be able to move forward to live strong, happy lives.
Voice 1
Now is their chance to change. The children know what has damaged them. They understand the past and they can see there is hope for a better life. They have to decide what to do. Will they hold on to the past and their bad emotions or go forward into the future?
So far, all the children who have attended Ang Tulay have bravely walked forward. It is a painful process and there are many tears as the children deal with their thoughts and memories. The teachers become very tired as they listen to the deep troubles in the children's hearts and minds. But soon, as each child moves forward 'across the bridge', the laughter comes.
Voice 2
On the fourth day the study is about truth in relationships. There must be truth between people before they can trust one another. The children also learn that love and forgiveness must be given and received before true healing can come.
Voice 1
After the study on love and forgiveness there is a special ceremony. A large cross made of tree branches is placed on the ground. Each child chooses two rocks. They examine the rocks and feel how hard they are. Then they place the rocks on the cross. One rock represents the people who have hurt the child. The other rock represents the people whom the child has hurt.
Voice 2
For Christians, the wooden cross is a symbol of hope. Jesus Christ was executed on a wooden cross, and Christians believe that the power of sin, hurt and pain in the world is broken because of that. So the children believe that placing their rocks on the cross is a sign of releasing all the bad things that have happened in their lives.
Voice 1
The last day is a day of great celebration. The children accept that the past has happened. They cannot change it. They let it go. Then they have a party. They dance and sing and eat. The programme is finished. The children are ready to go back to their homes. Their hearts are healed and they are ready to live life to the full.