Here a couple of pictures of the Asian Youth Day held in Manila, last November,sent from Cebu by our Brother Sun House's former boarder Sun Nary , actually studying in the Philippines. The Khmer delegation was leaded by Father Leonardo Ochoa, rector of Don Bosco Phnom Penh.

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ANS with DBFC - In 2000 the Women’s World Summit Foundation created the World Day for the Prevention of Child Abuse. They established the 19 of November, as the Universal Children’s Day. The WWSF is a coalition of 786 associations from 127 countries.

This celebration is crucial to Cambodia, a country where child abuse and other forms of violence like corporal punishments are still common. Although the government of Cambodia launched in 2003 an anti-pedophilia  campaign trying to shake off its reputation as a haven for sex predators and several humanitarian organizations have worked to enforce law and prevention, the problem still remains in the country.

According with official numbers, about 40 million children are victims of sexual abuse in the world; 1.2 millions of children are trafficked every year and many of them end as slaves or  lured ( or forced) into prostitution, while 275 million kids suffer domestic violence. 50,000 children are killed every year in the planet.

Among the member organizations of  WWSF, is the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians – or the Salesian sisters – through the International Institute of Mary Help of Christians (IIMA) in Geneva and the VIDES International of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians.

‘The challenge for VIS and for the Salesians is focusing on prevention, on the promotion of human rights and in this way breaking the vicious circle in which ignorance leads directly to violence and to abuse,” says Carola Carazzone, the one in charge of the Human Rights Office of VIS. “Outside the offices of lawyers and philosophers, awareness and knowledge of one’s own human rights leads to educating the young to become participants, to a personal and social commitment to human development, to becoming responsible citizens of the world. Much can and must be done against abuse and  violence not only in terms of repression, but also and especially in terms of prevention.’

In Cambodia, the Don Bosco Foundation of Cambodia runs different programs for children, women and young people from poverty-stricken, risk-prone communities . The Salesian Sisters run three technical schools for girls in Phnom Penh and Battambang, while the Don Bosco Children Fund works to get street kids back to school while sustaining their families.

By Fr.Albeiro Rodas, SDB
Journalist & Founder/CEO of the SocialComm Section of DonBoscotech-Sihanoukville