Don Bosco Poipet or Don Bosco Poipet Center is a work of the Salesian Congregation of Cambodia (the Don Bosco Foundation of Cambodia) opened in 2005 to attend children from the area of Poipet and the Banteay Meanchey province, especially those who are victims of abuse, human traffic, violence, and other risks.

Poipet is a town made by internal migrants from other Cambodian provinces looking for the best opportunities for labor and survival at the side of the casinos. A former stronghold of the Khmer Rouge guerrillas, it became a shanty town with a big population of children living under poverty.

Child labor, prostitution, drugs, human traffic, domestic violence, and other evils put at-risk children and women. Poipet has attracted several NGOs and official offices trying to alleviate the human drama of several families in the region.


The Salesians of Don Bosco in Cambodia answered also to the urgent request of humanitarian organizations. The center was opened especially as a children home by a couple of volunteers, Bruno and Catalina (French and Colombian-Ecuadorian). Children were sent by official offices in Battambang from victims of child abuse and human traffic.

The literacy center intents to normalize the studies of the children and teenagers of the center and many labor children from the different villages of Poipet.

Two technical sections (automotive and electricity), were opened as well to give the opportunity to teenagers from Poipet and Banteay Meanchey. The boys need to finish 7th grade before joining the two years of technical programs.

A sewing section was opened for girls in a town where there are several textile houses for export.