(MissionNewswire) Don Bosco Technical School of the Phnom Penh Thmey Commune has officially opened a modern technology laboratory on its school campus thanks to a partnership with Shukaku Inc., a private development company in Cambodia. Shukaku, headed by Senator Lao Menh Khing, was established in Cambodia in 2011 as a privately-owned innovative real estate developer and a master in urban planning to reshape the Cambodian capital. Its central project is the Phnom Penh City Center.

Shukaku signed a contract with Don Bosco Foundation of Cambodia to set up the computer lab for the benefit of the entire Don Bosco Phnom Penh academic community. The partnership also provides 20 scholarships for students. According to the Phnom Penh City Center website, the agreement pays the way for a two-year partnership worth more than $69,000. Partnerships such as this also help to ensure that Salesian students have access to better job opportunities in the future.

Don Bosco Foundation of Cambodia initiates projects, including technical schools, kindergartens, literacy centers and sponsorship programs, that benefit the most underprivileged children and youth throughout the country. The projects have been made possible through the support of foreign donors located around the globe. This agreement between the foundation and Shukaku highlights the importance of a local donor’s impact on Salesian students.

“We are grateful to Shukaku Inc. for aiding us in our efforts to fight social exclusion and poverty through practical education and skill building. These scholarships will equip young Cambodians with real-life technical skills and knowledge—crucial learning and development that will enable us to build the Cambodia of tomorrow, today,” said Father Roel Soto, rector of Don Bosco Phnom Penh.

The ceremony to launch the new computer lab was attended by Salesian staff and students as well as representatives of Shukaku led by Michelle Lau, the company’s executive director.

“Signing the MOU is only the beginning of what we hope will be a fruitful and long-term partnership with the Don Bosco Foundation. I continue to be truly inspired by Don Bosco’s core values of inclusiveness, generosity and excellence, and I trust our relationship will strengthen over the years as we find more opportunities to help Cambodians unleash the full potential of Cambodia,” said Lau.

The Don Bosco Technical School of Phnom Penh was the first Salesian educational project in Cambodia, opened in 1991, right after the signing of the peace agreement that inaugurated a time of reconstruction for the country. Being at the center of the main waves of migration from rural areas to the city, the technical school welcomes young people from different Cambodian provinces, most of them looking for the best opportunities to break the cycles of poverty.

Salesian missionaries have a long history of teaching job skills to youth in Cambodia. Through the United Nations, missionaries began providing technical and vocational education to Cambodian refugees living in camps along the Thai-Cambodian border in the late 1980s. In 1993, at the invitation of the government of Cambodia, a technical school in Phnom Penh was established to republish, translate and write books and educational documents that were destroyed during the Khmer Rouge regime. The technical school contained the only working printing press in the country—and served as a model of hope through education.

###

Sources:

Don Bosco Khmer

UNICEF – Cambodia