2896 THA-Cambodia Fr John Visser Officer of order of Orange-Nassau
austraLasia #2896 Father John Visser: Officer of the Order of
Orange-Nassau
SIHANOUKVILLE: 27 July 2011 -- Father John Visser,
Dutch Salesian Missionary, will be promoted as an Officer of
the Order of Orange-Nassau this coming August by Queen
Beatriz of the Netherlands. He has been a Knight of the
Order since 1981. The Order, created in 1892 by Queen Regent
Emma of the Netherlands, is granted to someone ‘who deserves
appreciation and recognition from society for the special
way in which they have carried out their activities,’
explains the official website of the Dutch Chivalric Order.
Father John Visser, born in 1933,
has been a Salesian missionary to Thailand and Cambodia
since 1956. ‘I was among the first Salesian missionaries to
fly, thanks to President Nasser of Egypt. He closed the Suez
Canal Zone during the Suez Crisis in 1956. The missionaries
waiting in Italy to go to Thailand could not board the ship,
so the superiors sent us by plane,’ he said.
Ordained priest in 1964 in Germany,
Father Visser returned to Thailand. Over a period of 35
years, he has been involved in the opening or running of
Salesian works such as the Don Bosco Technical School in
Bangkok, and subsequently others in Banpong, Udon Thani, Hua
Hin, Haadyai and Surat Thani. In 1992, at 58 years of age,
following a request by the Cambodian government and the
urging of his superiors, Father Visser visited Cambodia to
consider the challenge to develop educational works in a
country that had just seen the end to a period of violence
and political instability.
In 1995 in New York, along with
Brother Roberto Panetto, he received the ‘Servitor Pacis
Award’ in recognition of his commitment to the development
of peace in Cambodia. Brother Panetto led the development of
technical schools in the Khmer refugee camps in Thailand
during the 1980s. The Award, a combined Vatican-UN
recognition, was given in the same ceremony to then Filipino
President Corazon Aquino and a number of other persons.
"I think this kind of medal should
go to our benefactors, like Mr Hector Loontjens or his
Sawasdee Foundation", Fr Visser said. "Their great support
helps us a lot in order to provide the best for the youth of
countries like Thailand and Cambodia. I think this is all
Providence and we thank these benefactors so much. Recently
a German organization asked me about the sustainability of
our works in Cambodia. I answered that we believe in
Providence and also we expect that Cambodia will develop in
the coming years, so the Cambodian government will be able
to support the running of these projects too" he concluded.
Currently, Cambodian students in the Don Bosco technical
schools in Phnom Penh, Battambang, Sihanokville and Poipet
pay very little by way of school fees, while the Don Bosco
Childrens Fund, founded in Thailand by Father Visser,
supports the studies of hundreds of children in different
Cambodian provinces.
Father John Visser will travel soon
to Holland to receive his award, but also to visit
benefactors in his country and in Germany. ‘My dream now is
to develop the Don Bosco Vocational Centre in Kep City. We
are going to open it this coming October. Then we also have
land in Stung Treng and hope to open a technical school in
that northern province in about five years time to attend to
the indigenous young people of that region", he said. _________________ AustraLasia
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