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Despite millions of dollars in foreign aid supporting girls’ education, child-rights advocates in Bangladesh tell TIME they are struggling to summon equal support for the thousands of adolescent boys who have dropped out of school since the outbreak of COVID-19.
尽管有数百万美元的外国援助支持女孩们的教育，但孟加拉国的儿童权利倡导者告诉《时代》周刊，他们正在努力为数千名自新冠疫情爆发以来辍学的青少年男孩争取同等的支持。
It’s as if donors are “intentionally blind” to child labor, says Tony Michael Gomes, director of World Vision Bangladesh.
孟加拉国世界宣明会(World Vision Bangladesh)主任托尼·迈克尔·戈麦斯(Tony Michael Gomes)说，这就好像捐助者对童工“故意视而不见”。
“I see a huge disconnection . . . If you really ask what exactly they’re funding and if their resources are impacting the lives of the children, the answer might be no.”
“我看到了巨大的脱节…… 如果你真的问他们到底在资助什么，他们的资源是否影响了孩子们的生活，答案可能是否定的。”
Sheldon Yett, UNICEF representative to Bangladesh, agrees.
联合国儿童基金会驻孟加拉国代表谢尔登·耶特(Sheldon Yett)对此表示同意。
“I don’t want to de-emphasize the risk that girls are under,” he says. “But we must not lose sight of the specific needs of boys.”
他说:“我不想淡化女孩所面临的风险。” “但我们不能忽视男孩的特殊需求。”
For many parents, the costs of their children’s education have collided with mounting debts, leaving them with few options but to pull their sons from their classrooms.
对许多父母来说，孩子的教育成本与不断增加的债务相冲突，这让他们别无选择，只能让儿子离开教室。
“I felt terrible,” says Helena, whose 11-year-old, Alomgir, threw his exercise books in the trash when she told him he couldn’t return to school in September.
“我感觉很糟糕，”海伦娜说，当她告诉11岁的儿子阿罗姆吉尔（Alomgir）9月份不能回学校时，他把自己的练习本扔进了垃圾桶。
When Alomgir’s friends left the village and traipsed along the track to the local elementary school a few days later, Helena found her son sobbing in the shade of their wooden hut.
几天后，当阿罗姆吉尔的朋友们离开村庄，沿着小路向当地的小学走去时，海伦娜发现她的儿子在木屋的阴凉处哭泣。
“When I saw him crying, I cried too,” she says.
“当我看到他哭的时候，我也哭了，”她说。
She understands his pain.
她理解他的痛苦。
As a child, Helena was top of her class until her brother forced her to drop out of school and marry an older man.
海伦娜小时候是班里的尖子生，后来她的哥哥强迫她辍学，让她嫁给了一个比她大的男人。
She was only 12 years old.
当时她只有12岁。
Helena has already had to reconcile herself with depriving one son of an education: five years ago, her husband fell sick, and the family had to send Alomgir’s then 11-year-old brother to work at a brick kiln, where he earns 300 taka ($3.50) a day.
海伦娜已经不得不剥夺一个儿子的教育：五年前，她的丈夫生病了，家里不得不把阿罗姆吉尔当时11岁的哥哥送到砖窑工作，他在那里每天能挣300塔卡（3.50美元）。
“We thought that we could ensure the rest of our sons were educated by sacrificing the eldest one,” Helena says.
海伦娜说：“我们认为，牺牲长子可以确保其他儿子接受教育。”。
But when the countrywide lockdown began in March 2020, the kiln closed for four months, and the family had to take out a 40,000-taka ($465) loan to cover rice and medical care.
但是，当2020年3月全国开始封锁时，该窑关闭了四个月，这家人不得不申请40,000塔卡（465美元）的贷款来支付大米和医疗费用。
Two years later, they still owe 30,000 taka ($350), and Helena fears it’s Alomgir who will continue to pay the price.
两年后，他们仍然欠着3万塔卡(350美元)的债务，海伦娜担心这笔债务将由阿罗姆吉尔继续偿还。
Data on child labor in Bangladesh is notoriously scant.
有关孟加拉国童工的数据很少。
According to the ILO, rates appeared to be decreasing before the pandemic, but there hasn’t been a nationwide, government-led survey on child labor since 2013.
据国际劳工组织（ILO）称，在疫情爆发前，童工率似乎在下降，但自2013年以来，政府一直没有对童工问题进行全国性的调查。
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