Episode Details

In South Africa, a former passenger train now serves as a traveling medical center to provide health services to people in need. 

在南非，一列以前的旅客列车现在充当旅行医疗中心，为有需要的人提供医疗服务。 

The train is known as Phelophepa. In the Sesotho language, this means “good, clean, health.” It travels across South Africa to provide medical care to a mix of patients for whom usual heath care is unavailable or rare. 

这列火车被称为Phelophepa。在塞索托语中，这意味着“良好、干净、健康”。它穿越南非，为无法获得或很少获得常规医疗护理的患者提供医疗服务。 

The train has been operating since South Africa’s government ended its racist system of apartheid in the early 1990s. The train carries medical professionals around the country, even to the most rural villages. Officials say the service helps at least 375,000 South Africans each year. 

自南非政府于 20 世纪 90 年代初结束种族主义种族隔离制度以来，这列火车一直在运营。火车载着医疗专业人员前往全国各地，甚至到最偏远的村庄。官员们表示，这项服务每年至少为 375,000 名南非人提供帮助。 

The care patients receive is separate from the government’s main public health care system. That system serves an estimated 84 percent of the population. But government insurance plans are too costly for many people to pay for. South Africa is also dealing with an unemployment rate of more than 32 percent. 

患者接受的护理独立于政府的主要公共医疗保健系统。该系统为估计 84% 的人口提供服务。但政府保险计划的成本太高，许多人无法支付。南非的失业率也超过 32%。

The government has taken some steps to help get more of the nation’s population covered by public health insurance plans. 

政府已采取一些措施来帮助更多的全国人口享受公共健康保险计划。 

One of those came in May, when South African President Cyril Ramaphosa signed a law creating the country’s National Health Insurance Act. The law aims to provide financial assistance to millions of South Africans who do not currently have health insurance. The program gets support from private insurers. 

其中之一是在五月份，当时南非总统西里尔·拉马福萨