99歲老婦每天爲非洲貧困兒童做衣服

Lillian Weber makes a dress from scratch every single day so that a child in need will have something beautiful to wear.

莉莉安·韋伯爲了貧困地區的孩子有漂亮衣服穿，堅持每天爲他們做一件新衣服。

Throughout the last few years, Weber has made more than 840 dresses for Little Dresses for Africa, a Christian nonprofit that distributes dresses to impoverished young girls in Africa and beyond. Weber says she hopes to hit the 1,000 dress mark before too long.

在過去的幾年裏，韋伯已經通過名爲“非洲小禮服”的基督徒非盈利組織向非洲及周邊國家的貧困小女孩送去了840件自己做的漂亮裙子。韋伯說她希望能儘快做夠1000件裙子。

All this would certainly be extraordinary enough, but there's something else that makes Weber's story particularly astounding: She's 99.

單是這樣的行爲已足夠讓人感到不可思議了，可更令人敬佩的是，莉莉安·韋伯是一位已經99歲的老人了。

Weber, who lives in Iowa, reportedly starts on a new dress every single morning, and after a midday break, finishes the garment in the afternoon. "It is just what I like to do," Weber told the Quad-City Times earlier this year.

據報道，家住美國愛荷華州的韋伯，每天早晨開始製作衣服，中午稍作休息後繼續，並在下午完成製作。“這是我喜歡做的事情。”韋伯今年年初告訴記者。

Even though she's speedy, Weber still finds the time and takes the effort to make each dress extra special.

儘管韋伯做衣服的速度很快，但是爲了保證每件衣服都是精心製作的，所以她堅持每天只做一件。

“She personalizes them all,” Weber's daughter, Linda, told WQAD-TV of her mom's creations (pictured below). “It’s not like good enough that she makes the dresses, she has to put something on the front to make it look special, to give it her touch.”

“她做的裙子每件都是獨一無二的。”韋伯的女兒琳達告訴WQAD-TV的記者。“這些裙子可能看起來沒有那麼好，但她儘量把每件做的都很特別，每件裙子都帶有她的風格。”

Weber, who was nominated for WQAD-TV's "Pay It Forward" award, has been sewing the garments for Little Dresses for Africa since 2011, when she and a group of women -- most of whom are over the age of 80 -- decided to come together to support the organization.

2011年韋伯召集了一羣年過八旬的老人一起支持“非洲小禮服”這個組織，從那時每天開始做衣服。韋伯還因此獲得了WQAD-TV“把愛傳下去”的獎項的提名。

“I was watching a documentary about the [nonprofit], and thought it would be a great idea for some of us to get together to help some people who live so far away,” one of the group's members, Judy Noel, told the Quad-City Times.

其中一位名叫朱迪·諾爾的老人告訴記者：“我看了有關這個非盈利組織的一個紀錄片，覺得我們大家聚集起來一起幫助那些遠方的人真是一個很好的主意。”

Little Dresses for Africa distributes dresses to orphanages, churches and schools in Africa. According to the organization's website, the goal of the nonprofit is to provide clothing to some of the world's most vulnerable children and "to plant in the hearts of little girls that they are worthy."

“非洲小禮服”組織爲非洲的教堂、學校以及孤兒院裏的孩子們捐贈衣服。該組織的網站上稱，其目的就是爲世界上那些最容易受到傷害的孩子們提供衣服，以此來讓“小女孩們意識到自己是優秀的、有價值的”。

So far, the organization says it's collected more than 2.5 million dresses, which have been distributed to 47 countries in Africa, as well as to children in need in countries like Haiti, Honduras, Thailand, Mexico and even parts of the United States.

目前爲止，這個組織已經收到超過250萬條裙子，並已經捐給非洲的47個國家，以及海地、洪都拉斯、泰國、墨西哥及美國部分地區的需要幫助的孩子。

Next May, Weber will celebrate her 100th birthday, but she says she has no intention of slowing down.

明年五月，韋伯將迎來百歲生日，但她並不打算放慢做衣服的速度。

“When I get to that thousand[th dress], if I’m able to. I won’t quit," she told WQAD-TV. "I’ll go at it again."

“我希望到那時我能做夠1000件衣服，只要我可以，我不會放棄的。”她告訴WQAD-TV，“我會繼續做下去的。”