Children in developing countries are healthier and more likely to survive past the age of five when their mothers can read and write. 发展中国家的孩子，如果其母亲会识字和写字，则其健康状况更好，寿命也更有可能超过 5 岁。 Experts in public health accepted this idea decades ago, but until now no one has been able to show that a woman's ability to read in itself improves her children's chances of survival. 公共卫生方面的专家几十年前就接受了这一观点，但是直到现在，也没有人能拿出确凿的证据证实妇女的识字能力能够提高孩童存活的概率。

Most literate women learnt to read in primary school, and the fact that a woman has had an education may simply indicate her family's wealth or that it values its children more highly. 大部分识字的妇女是在小学里学习认字的，而有机会受教育刚好可以证明其家庭比较富有，或其 家庭更加重视孩子。 Now a long-term study carried out in Nicaragua has eliminated these factors by showing that teaching reading to poor adult women, who would otherwise have remained illiterate, has a direct effect on their children's health and survival. 目前，在 Nicaragua 开展的一项长期研究证明这些因素（家庭富有或重视孩子——— 译者注）并不重要，他们教贫穷的成年妇女识字（否则这些妇女仍将是文盲），结果表明母亲识字对儿 童的健康和生存概率确实有直接影响。 In 1979, the government of Nicaragua established a number of social programmes, including A National Literacy Crusade. 1979 年，Nicaragua 政府推出了诸多社会性项目，包括“国家扫盲运动”。 By 1985, about 300,000 illiterate adults from all over the Country, many of whom had never attended primary school, had learnt how to read, write and use numbers. 到 1985 年，来自全国的大约 30 万名文盲成人学习了如何写字，阅读和使用数字，其中很多人从来都没有读过小学。

During this period, researchers from the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, the Central American Institute of Health in Nicaragua, the National Autonomous University of Nicaragua and the Costa Rican Institute of Health interviewed nearly 3,000 women: some of whom had learn to read as children, some during the literacy crusade and some who had never learnt at all. 在此期间，来自四所科研院所的科学家调查了约 3000 名妇女，其中某些在儿时学过识字，有些是在该运动期间学过，而有一些则从没学过。 The women were asked how many children they had given birth to and how many of them had died in infancy. 这些妇女被问及其子女数量及夭折子女数量等问题。 The research teams also examined the surviving children to find out how well-nourished they were. 研究人 员也调查了那些活着的孩子，以了解他们的营养状况。

The investigators' findings were striking. 研究人员的发现非常让人震惊。 In the late 1970s, the infant mortality rate for the children of illiterate mothers was around 110 deaths per thousand live births. 在 20 世纪 70 年代晚期，文盲母亲子女的婴儿死亡率大概在 110/1 000。 At this point in their lives, those mothers who later went on to learn to read had a similar level of child mortality (105/1000). 此时学习识字的母亲，后来所生子女的婴儿死亡率与此相当 （105/。 For women educated in primary school, however, the infant mortality rate was significantly lower, at 80 per thousand. 然而，对于读过小学的妇女而言，其子女的死亡率要大大降低，大约 80/1 000。

In 1985, after the National Literacy Crusade had ended, the infant mortality figures for those who remained illiterate and for those educated in primary school remained more or less unchanged. 1985 年，在国家扫盲运动结束后，没有参加扫盲的文盲妇女和原本读过小学的妇女的子女死亡率几乎没有变化。 For those women who learnt to read through the campaign, the infant mortality rate was 84 per thousand, an impressive 21 points lower than for those women who were still illiterate. 而参加了扫盲运动的妇女的子女死亡率为 84/1 000，相比未参加扫盲的文盲妇女，这个数字的降幅达到了 21 个点。 The children of the newly-literate mothers were also better nourished than those of women who could not read. 对于后来受教育的母亲而言，其子女的营养状况也比文盲母亲的子女要好。

Why are the children of literate mothers better off? 为什么识字母亲的孩子状况较好呢？ According to Peter Sandiford of the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, no one knows for certain. 利物浦热带医学院的 Peter Sandiford 认为，答案无法确定。 Child health was not on the curriculum during the women's lessons, so he and his colleagues are looking at other factors. 儿童健康方面的知识并不包含在妇女扫盲课程中，所以他和同事在寻找其他方面的原因。 They are working with the same group of 3,000 women, to try to find out whether reading mothers make better use of hospitals and clinics, opt for smaller families, exert more control at home, learn modern childcare techniques more quickly, or whether they merely have more respect for themselves and their children. 他们对同一组 3000 人进行了研究，试图探明是否识字母亲能够更好地利用医院和诊所、选择少生孩子、对家庭有更 多话语权、更快的学习现代幼儿保育技巧，还是仅仅是他们更加尊重自己和孩子。

The Nicaraguan study may have important implications for governments and aid agencies that need to know where to direct their resources. Nicaraguan 的研究对政府和援助机构来说可能具有重要的意义，因为这些机构需要知道究竟把资 源用在何处。 Sandiford says that there is increasing evidence that female education, at any age, is 'an important health intervention in its own right'. Sandiford 说，越来越多的证据表明，妇女在任何年龄受教育都会对其子女健康带来重要影响。 The results of the study lend support to the World Bank's recommendation that education budgets in developing countries should be increased, not just to help their economies, but also to improve child health. 研究结论支持世界银行的建议，即发展中国家的教育投入应该增加，不仅仅是为了刺激经济，也是为了改善儿童健康。 'We've known for a long time that maternal education is important,' says John Cleland of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine， “长久以来，我们都知道妇女教育是很重要的”，John Cleland 说， 'But we thought that even if we started educating girls today, we'd have to wait a generation for the pay-off. “但是我们以前认为，即便现在就开始教育女孩子，我们也要等下一代人才能看到效果。 The Nicaraguan study suggests we may be able to bypass that.' Nicaraguan 的研究表明我们可以忽略这种忧虑了。”

Cleland warns that the Nicaraguan crusade was special in many ways, and similar campaigns elsewhere might not work as well. Cleland 警告说，Nicaraguan 的扫盲运动在很多方面都很特殊，而在其他地方进行类似的运动可能无法收到同样效果。 It is notoriously difficult to teach adults skills that do not have an immediate impact on their everyday lives, and many literacy campaigns in other countries have been much less successful. 如果一项技巧不会给生活带来立竿见影的影响，那么要教成年人学会这种技巧的 难度可想而知，而且其他国家举办的很多扫盲运动都远没有如此成功。 'The crusade was part of a larger effort to bring a better life to the people,' says Cleland. “我们有一项更大的使命，就是改善人民的生活，而扫盲运动只是这项使命的一部分”，Cleland 说。 Replicating these conditions in other countries will be a major challenge for development workers. 在其他国家复制这些条件对于改革者来说，是一个主要的挑战。