There are many African women who have made a great and lasting imprint on the world. Kenya’s own Wangari Maathai has spawned an international movement on behalf of environmental stewardship. (Applause.) Ellen Johnson Sirleaf has taken the reins of a nation once gripped by civil war, ensuring that the rights of women are respected and protected, and that women have the opportunity to help drive social and economic progress, as they are now doing in many parts of the world. It is not only a moral imperative; it is an economic one as well. Everywhere I go, I see the hard work and the progress that women can make if unleashed, if given just a chance.

许多非洲妇女在世界上留下了巨大而永久的脚印。肯尼亚的旺加里·马塔伊（Wangari Maathai）就催生了一场保护环境的国际运动。（掌声）埃伦· 约翰逊·瑟利夫（Ellen Johnson Sirleaf）接管了曾一度备受内战之苦的国家，确保妇女权利受到尊重和保护，为妇女创造机会，使之能够推动社会和经济进步，正如她们在世界许多地方所做的那样。这不仅是一项道德义务，也是一项必须完成的经济任务。我所到之处，都看到妇女在勤奋工作，还看到她们一旦摆脱桎梏所能取得的成就，而她们需要的只是一个机会。

In a few days, I will be in Cape Town and I will visit, for the third time, the Victoria Mxenge cooperative. I first visited there in 1997. It was a location where women who had been displaced for many reasons – husbands had died, economic problems – had come together in a small group and they were squatting. They didn’t own this desolate piece of land that was off one of the highways. But they had nowhere else to go with their children. And they began building a community. And they pooled small microloans, which I still believe is one of the greatest ways of lifting individuals out of poverty. And they began to build their homes.

我过几天会去开普敦（Cape Town），我将第三次访问维多利亚·恩姆尚盖合作社（Victoria Mxenge）。我第一次访问那里是在1997年。这是一个无家可归的妇女们居住的地方，她们由于丈夫去世、经济困难及其他原因而在这里未经许可聚居。她们不拥有公路旁边的这块荒凉的土地。但是她们带着孩子无路可走，于是在那里建起一个社区。她们把得到的小型贷款拼凑起来，开始建设家园。我依然认为小型贷款是帮助人们摆脱贫困的最佳方法之一。

Today, a whole village stands on what was once a dusty and empty patch of land. Like those women, women and men across this continent are taking responsibility. They want partners. They want partners with their governments, they want partners with the private sector, they want partners with countries like my own. There is no reason to wait. The ingredients are all here for an extraordinary explosion of growth, prosperity, and progress. This is a storyline of opportunity that I want to tell, because I know how important it is to translate legislation like AGOA, the efforts of governments like Kenya’s into daily changes that people can look to.

今天，在一度被尘土覆盖的旷野上矗立着崭新的村庄。正如那些妇女一样，这个大陆的人民正在承担起责任。他们需要合作伙伴。他们需要有人与他们的政府合作，需要有人与他们的私营企业合作，他们需要像美国这样的合作伙伴。没有理由再等待，取得非凡增长、繁荣和进步的一切要素已经具备。这就是我要讲述的关于机遇的故事，因为我知道把《非洲增长与机会法》这样的法律和肯尼亚政府及其他国家的政府作出的努力转变为人们期待的日常变化有多么重要。

This morning, I had the chance to meet two women living here in Nairobi because I had to get my hair done. The women in this audience know that. (Laughter.) I think they did a good job too. My hairdos are like the subject of Ph.D. theses, so – (laughter) – I want everybody to know I got a good one in Nairobi. And I was talking to these two women who came to see me, and I said, “Well, what’s it like living in Nairobi,” and they said, “It’s a wonderful place, and it’s a great place to raise children.”

今天上午，我有机会见到两位住在内罗毕的妇女，因为我要做头发。在座的女性都明白这一点。（笑声）我觉得她们的手艺很不错。我的发型就像博士论文的题目，因此（笑声）我希望大家都知道我在内罗毕把头发做得这么好。我和前来见我的这两位妇女交谈，我说：“内罗毕的生活如何？”她们说：“这是一个非常好的地方，很适合养儿育女。”

I want to hear that everywhere, from every family, from every mother and father who can say, truthfully, it’s a great place to raise children from the east, to the west, from the north, to the south. Because after all, what we do should only be about the next generation. In public or private life, there is no greater obligation to see what we are doing to further the lives of those children who are close to us, but to all the children.

我希望听到每一个地方、每一个家庭、每一位父母都能够诚实地说，这里很适合养儿育女，希望从东到西、从南到北都是如此。因为，说到底，我们要做的事情只有一个目的，就是为了下一代。无论是在工作中还是在生活中，我们最重要的义务就是为改善孩子们的生活而努力，不仅是为我们身边的孩子，也包括所有的孩子们。

So as we go forward at this 8th AGOA Forum, I hope we will all keep in mind that we are called upon to act to make it possible for the children of this great continent to have the kind of future that all children deserve. Thank you very much. (Applause.)

因此，在我们举行第八届《非洲增长与机会法》论坛之际，我希望我们都能铭记，我们担负着神圣的义务，要为这个伟大的大陆上的孩子们创造机会，使他们能够像世界上的所有孩子们那样有一个美好的未来。多谢各位。（掌声）