The relic of Don Bosco will cross the former Khmer refugee camps this Thursday

Last November 17 a curious guest arrived by plane from Seoul to Bangkok and visited all the Don Bosco schools in the Southeast Asian kingdom where the Salesian educational community has been working for underprivileged children and youth since the 1930s. Continue reading

The Mother Teresa Film Festival in Cambodia

Phnom Penh. To close my Saturday evening I went to the Sorya Shopping Mall, that smart modern building just few meters at the south of the Central Market. The idea was to watch a movie. There was outside a music promotional concert and inside the mall plenty of fashion youth going up and down the escalators. I confess that there were not much attractive movies for me this time, but there was something out of common: the film of Mother Teresa. Continue reading

Cambodians lack reading… Eureka!

The National Library of Cambodia and the Australian Embassy organized this week a forum in Phnom Penh to talk about culture of reading. Unfortunately I did not participate, because I did not get any invitation and, moreover, Sihanoukville is three hours by car from Phnom Penh. I got the news from The Cambodia Daily that entitled it ‘Cambodia Lacks Reading Culture, Experts Say.‘ Then I said ‘Eureka! These guys discovered the wet water! Continue reading

A Word on the Meaning of “Free Education” And the Culture of Aid Dependency

There is a fact that causes some conflicts for some friends when they know that our Don Bosco Technical Schools in Cambodia charge the students with a monthly fee. Why do you say that it is ‘free education‘ when you charge the students?

It is necessary to clarify this element before it reaches confusions. Continue reading

Child Labor in Cambodia

The two persons of the photo are very popular on the Sihanoukville’s beaches, especially O’Cheteal. I tried to talk with the man, but he does not say much. He is a blind. Probably a former soldier. Probably he lost the eyes during the troublesome years of Cambodia. He sings and begs for money, especially to foreigners. He is guided by that little girl. I have been in Sihanoukville since 2006 and they have been around by then. The girls does not attend school. It is supposed that the man is her father. She picks cans, an activity that children of the streets do. They sell them and get some money. Continue reading