Both the Don Bosco Technical Center and the Don Bosco Hotel School provide two-year skill training programs to poor and orphaned youth between the ages of 17 and 22 years with limited opportunities for education. The Don Bosco Hotel School focuses on hospitality programs to prepare students for work in restaurants, at catering companies and hotels and in other areas of the tourism field. The Don Bosco Technical Center, the largest technical school in the area, offers courses in electricity, electronics, automotive repair, printing, web design, audiovisual editing and production, journalism, social communication, secretarial skills, sewing, culinary arts, hotel management and welding.

Primarily known for its social communication and journalism program, the Don Bosco Technical Center is home to the Salesian-run Audiovisual Center which operates as a teaching institution for media communications while providing audiovisual production services to the local community. Started in 2007 by Father Albeiro Rodas Samnang, rector of the Don Bosco Foundation of Cambodia, the Audiovisual Center trains youth from rural and disadvantaged communities in media communications with the goal of teaching them a viable trade that will lead to stable employment after graduation. In addition to courses in media communications, the center offers workshops facilitated by Cambodian journalists.

The donated rice-meals are provided to students during the school day, and for 161 students who are boarders at the schools, meals are provided three times a day.

“Technical students need the proper nutrition to focus on their studies and fully take part in classroom and in-field training,” says Father Mark Hyde, executive director of Salesian Missions, the U.S. development arm of the Salesians of Don Bosco. “Prepared students are more likely to learn valuable skills that will help them gain employment and break the cycle of poverty in their lives while enabling them to give back to their communities.”

Stop Hunger Now partners with Salesian Missions (in New Rochelle, N.Y.) which works to identify needs and coordinate delivery of 40-foot shipping containers full of meals supplemented with additional supplies when available. The partnership was developed in 2011 and since that time, more than 60 shipping containers, including more than 16 million rice-meals, have been successfully delivered to 19 countries around the globe. The meals and life-saving aid has helped to nourish poor youth at Salesian schools and programs and care for those in need of emergency aid during times of war, natural disasters and health crises.

“The partnership with Stop Hunger Now allows Salesian Missions to expand its services for youth in need,” adds Fr. Hyde. “Operating feeding programs for youth in Salesian schools whose families cannot afford to feed them is very important and integral to the success of our students and their ability to gain an education.”

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.

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Sources:

Don Bosco Technical Center

Don Bosco Hotel School 

Stop Hunter Now 

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Don Bosco Kep provides basic, secondary and technical education to poor youth living in the Cambodian provinces of Kep, Kampot, Takeo, Ratanakiri and Mondolkiri. The organization’s educational and social development programs help students break the cycle of poverty in their lives and become contributing members of their communities. Don Bosco Kep provides special attention to children and young people from ethnic minorities, persons with disabilities, orphans and at-risk youth in danger of becoming victims of human trafficking, labor exploitation or other abuses.

“Youth living in poverty are among the least likely to have access to educational programs that provide the skills necessary to lead stable, productive lives,” says Father Mark Hyde, executive director of Salesian Missions, the U.S. development arm of the Salesians of Don Bosco. “Salesian missionaries in Cambodia are working to ensure that every child, no matter their situation, has access to education.”

In order to best meet the needs of the youth it serves, Don Bosco Kep is constantly expanding its services. In October 2011, courses in social communication and journalism as well as front office management, housekeeping and tailoring were added to the technical school. In October 2012, an electrical department opened and information technology and language classes began. A year later, the technical school again expanded to include coursework in culinary arts, agriculture, food and beverage, art communication and office administration.

The addition of a farm will help to support the work of the agricultural department which serves to train Cambodian youth in mechanical agriculture while producing food for the technical school to aid its sustainability. Since 2011, the agricultural department has worked with limited resources on a small piece of land inside the school’s campus. Over the past several years, the department has been growing with the addition of more teachers and students and has been making a broader social impact in the regions of Kep, Kampot and Takeo.

In order to sustain this growth, Salesian missionaries have obtained a plot of land near the school for the development of the small farm. Thanks to the support of donors from Germany, Salesian missionaries are planning for new facilities on the land including a classroom, a store for equipment and a farm house. In order to make the land operational, missionaries are working to secure funding for the required fence around the property and for the installation of 10 solar panels that will allow the project to supply its own energy and ensure its sustainability. The project will also require a newly drilled well as Kep Province lacks a public water service. Once completed, the small farm will provide an opportunity for additional hands-on training for the agricultural students and serve to provide a sustainable food source for the technical school.

Cambodia’s long history of violence and conflict has led to almost a quarter of Cambodians living in poverty, according to UNICEF. Since the end of the Khmer Rouge regime, Cambodia’s economy has been strengthening with particular growth in construction, tourism and agriculture. However, Cambodians are still struggling, particularly those living in rural areas where close to 75 percent of the population face seasonal food shortages.

With almost a quarter of Cambodians over the age of 15 illiterate with very little access to education, poor youth find it especially challenging to break the cycle of poverty. To provide youth with greater opportunity, Salesian missionaries in the country operate 45 schools and seven vocational training centers in poor, rural villages through a partnership with Salesian Missions and the Ministry of Education.

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Sources:

Don Bosco Kep

UNICEF – Cambodia 

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Rural Cambodians make up about 80 percent of the population and have the most limited access to education, healthcare and other public services. Today, close to a quarter of Cambodians over the age of 15 are illiterate. With very little access to education, poor youth find it especially challenging to break the cycle of poverty and look toward a brighter future.

The Salesians have a long history of working to make a difference in the lives of poor and marginalized youth in Cambodia. In partnership with the United Nations, they began providing technical vocational education to Cambodian refugees living in camps along the Thai-Cambodian border in the late 1980s. Later, Salesians partnered with the Ministry of Labor and Vocational Education to open seven vocational training centers. Currently, approximately 1,300 youth are enrolled in one and two year vocational training programs in Sihanoukville, Phnom Penh, Toul Kork, Teuk Thla, Battambang, Kep, and Poipet. Students are trained in skills such as mechanics, welding, computers, printing and communications.

In August, the Salesian-run Vithayalai Don Bosco in Battambang celebrated its first official graduating class. The school, which first opened to students in 2000, was recognized this year as a formal educational institution. It has more than 565 students enrolled with 73 of those graduating from Grade 6 in the school’s first official graduation ceremony.

“Parents and other relatives were there to see their children graduate,” says Father Mark Hyde, executive director of Salesian Missions, the U.S. development arm of the Salesians of Don Bosco. “Many of these families did not have the same opportunities for education their children have today. Some are not able to read and write, so it is quite an accomplishment for their children to be successfully graduating.”

“Each of these students has the incredible potential to continue their studies and become leaders in Cambodia and later work to make sure that education can be available and accessible to all,” adds Fr. Hyde.

Speeches, student led musical performances and an awards ceremony marked the graduation exercises. The students were honored both for their academic achievements and for their talents in sports, singing, dance and the arts. Most of the students will carry what they have learned into further academic studies or successful employment.

“Not only is education about learning to read and write, it’s a the foundation for a career and a secure livelihood,” says Fr. Hyde. “There is new hope for these students and for their families.”

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Sources:

World Bank – Cambodia

Don Bosco Cambodia

Vithayalai Don Bosco in Battambang

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