(ANS – Kep City) – Bishop Olivier Schmitthaeusler, the Apostolic Vicar of Phnom Penh, led the official opening of the water tower and a youth hostel for the educative community of the Don Bosco Technical School in Kep Province.  This took place on Thursday 31 October 2013. Fr John Visser was present as national representative for the Don Bosco Foundation of Cambodia, while the donors were represented by Mr Gerard van Hal, the benefactor of the Hatrans Center, and Mr Hans Krake, both from the Netherlands.

The new places

The Don Rua Youth Center is not new, however. It was sponsored by the Sioch Group and the Government of the Netherlands and was created to welcome groups of children and youth from other provinces coming to enjoy the stunning hilly and sea views of Kep while on vacation or for special meetings. This original mission is preserved, but the Don Rua Building now has two other goals: to be the school restaurant and stage on the ground floor and the art communication section and hostel on the first floor. The restaurant school was possible thanks to the support of the European Patent Office and can hold more than 500 people, although the number of students this year is 192.

The Mary Help of Youth Water Tower (see main pic above) is the newest construction and belongs to the Water System Project for the technical school supported by donors through Don Bosco Mondo, Bonn. The goal is to guarantee water for this large eudcational community center for the years to come. Most people in Kep Province have wells for water thanks to the Kep hills in the National Park. The 70 meter Don Bosco well goes deeper still. The water tower was designed by a group of volunteer experts including Mr Joachim Tramper and Mr Hans Kuechle and has two water reserve tanks: one underground with a capacity of 50 sq. m and the tanks above with a capacity of 8 sq. m. The pump, engineered by Stichting Scholenproject Cambodja Rotterdam (SSCR) and Wilde Ganzen is assisted by solar panels. Kamworks, a leading solar energy company, is currently installing the solar panels.

The water tower structure also offered the possibility of creating three dormitories for young female teachers, and stands beside the Piet de Visser House, the residence for female students. The structure is 15 meters high, the tallest building on the campus and even in the Prey Thom District, so it is also a good observatory over Kep Bay from where one can contemplate the Vietnamese island of Koh Trol and the Bokor Mountains across the bay.

Cultural program and blessing

The afternoon program began at the Don Rua Hall with the presence of all the educative community. Fr. Albeiro Rodas, the Don Bosco Kep superior, thanked the donors and volunteers involved in both projects.

Bishop Olivier also thanked donors for their support for development in Kep, Kampot and Takeo, by way of this educational community and offered gifts to teachers and students. He blessed the building and shared with the students who prepared a program of traditional dances.

Kep is the smallest Cambodian province and is in the southeast near the Vietnamese border overlooking the Gulf of Thailand. It belongs to the region of Kampot and Takeo, a rural area with great lack of education centers where young people can learn employable skills, forcing many young people to migrate to Phnom Penh, Sihanoukville or Thailand in search of better opportunities. In October 2011 the Salesians opened a technical school for the young population of the region and as it is located inside Kep National Park, it features the goal of creating a sustainable and ecological school environment.

There are currently 192 students in sections such as audiovisual production, web development, IT & English, office administration, art communication, agriculture, electricity and hotel skills. It is also a school based on gender equality, so every section must have both genders. In the evening there are informal courses for children and youth from the nearby villages in English, computers and internet.

The Don Bosco Kep Children Fund looks after children from three Kep and Kampot schools, while promoting the Don Bosco campus as a safe and educational environment for children of the region.

Published 06/11/2013