4909(I)_Don Bosco Alumni Cambodia are growing in animation and solidarity
Don Bosco Past Pupils Association Cambodia
November 10, 2018
Phnom Penh, Cambodia, 10 November 2018 -- Next November 22-25 the Don Bosco Alumni (Asia - Oceania Region, that includes both South Asia and EAO regions of the SDB) are preparing their formation meeting in Bangkok, animated by the World President and his Councillors - expecting the participation of all Federation Alumni Presidents and SDB Delegates. Some 40 participants are expected to join, including the World leadership (World Delegate Fr Jayapalan and World Confederation Councillors).
Cambodia is among the young and energetic emerging realities of the EAO region. We also expect quite strong participation from the Cambodia Alumni in the Pan-Asia Don Bosco Past Pupils formation event in Bangkok. Through the sharing of the Phnom Penh-based Alumni leadership we can put a finger on the pulse of their vitality. We number about 25,000 young men and women who have graduated from Don Bosco schools over the past 25 years.
The DBPPC (Don Bosco Past Pupils Association Cambodia) was formed in 2011, at first with a non-formal president, then we organised the first meeting outside of school and the next step was to move towards formal election of the Cambodia Alumni president, now we have already the 4th Leader. We grow, we are united with Don Bosco Poipet, Don Bosco Kep, Don Bosco Sihanoukville and two institutions in Don Bosco Battambang, so we are one Cambodian Alumni Family.
"We try to be strong as an executive board committee; we try to communicate with the Alumni around Cambodia, esp. those involved in industry and also try to cooperate with the mother school(s) for the benefit of our students,e. g. in today's marketing.Our main annual events are: Past Pupils Birthday, the Don Bosco Sport festival joined by many Alumni. On these occasions we show the aim of our committee in doing everything for the Alumni. Many Alumni also foster connection between industrial companies.At the local level we support our mother school(s),have taken part in their school celebrations, are involved in On-the-Job-Training of Don Bosco Technical school students, accepting our students in Alumni companies or other businesses. We also facilitate donations for Don Bosco Technical Schools and visits to poor young people and their families around Cambodia. We also help our schools to develop more updated curriculum and facilitate their relationship with the government authorities.
We have good results in our animation, but we are not yet proud of our activity, since we struggle to involve more members with their active contribution. Our main challenge is - how can we introduce them to joining the Association? Some graduates of Don Bosco schools have a wrong idea about this and it is not easy to explain the main goal of our Association. Most of them just expect that DB Technical school provides them with a job. Hence they think they will be helped also after graduation. We try to explain that we are here to support the new generation. We try to engage all Don Bosco teachers, since they are former students. We try to engage everyone! Our goal is to foster some membership donations, to help our next generations. We don’t have much fund in hand. If we have, we can help many youth in the rural zone or in the provinces! This is our aim now! We appreciate all who are helping us in this aim.
Currently there are about 1000 registered Alumni on the Cambodia Federation database, coming from all 7 DB schools in our country. We need to get more communications among the Alumni of each school. We need to introduce more about the "Don Bosco Alumni Association" - to motivate, to inspire and come more together. It would be nice, if each Past Pupil would contribute! Also we would like to have more EAO (East Asia - Oceania) Alumni contacts! Other DB Alumni might be interested in investing in Cambodia, why not?
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