(ANS – Kep City) – After months waiting for work to be completed, the official opening of the Don Bosco Vocational Centre in Kep City took place from 5-7 March. The Centre offers a huge opportunity for the less qualified young people from the area. Local Muslim and Buddhist communities also played a part in the opening ceremonies.

The Don Bosco Vocational Centre, Kep, has changed over time: in the beginning it was a simple rural area where the Salesians and students could come for a retreat; then gradually it became a small sewing school; now it offers a wide range of educational activities and courses, the first beneficiaries of which are less skilled young people who find it difficult to find employment.

The Salesian technical complex will offer two main benefits to young people from Kep and other neighbouring provinces: the opportunity for remaining in their province of origin by improving their working conditions and life where they are; or the chance to be suitably qualified to be able to seek work in the large cities, lowering the risk that they will end up being marginalised like so many who emigrate from the country areas and flood into metropolitan areas like Phnom Penh and Sihanoukville. 

At Kep the Salesians in Cambodia have decided to focus mainly on intellectual skills and service areas, through courses in social communication, art, information technologies, ecotourism, secretarial skills, hotel and public relations.

The three days of celebration for the official opening began on Tuesday 5 March.  A delegation from the Cham ethnic community, mostly Muslim, gave a blessing to young Cham students attending the centre.

On Wednesday 6 Buddhist monks had their turn and blessed the school following Buddhist tradition.

Finally on the 7th the Vicar Apostolic of Phnom Penh, Archbishop Oliviere Schimitthaeusler blessed the complex. The Minister for Education, Sport and Youth, the Hon. Im Sethy, and Governors from Kep, Kampot  and Takeo provinces attended this final ceremony. Thousands of students from schools around Kep province also attended.

Published 11/03/2013