Logo of Phnom Penh Post newspaper Phnom Penh Post - Preah Sihanouk launches training programme for drug addicts

Preah Sihanouk launches training programme for drug addicts

Content image - Phnom Penh Post
Drug addicts get vocational training at the centre in Preah Sihanouk on October 22. SOCIAL AFFAIRS MINISTRY

Preah Sihanouk launches training programme for drug addicts

The National Centre for Voluntary and Community-based Treatment Service and Rehabilitation for Drug Addicts based in Preah Sihanouk province’s Stung Hav district on October 22 launched the first vocational training course to equip addicts with skills before their reintegration back into society.

Veth Valda, director of the Ministry of Interior’s National Centre for Treatment and Rehabilitation of Drug Addicts who attended the opening of the course, told The Post on October 25 that the first training session was launched in collaboration with relevant institution.

“In this first session, we trained 50 drug victims who have been rehabilitated. In this term, we will train them in agriculture, including growing cash crops, and service training in building wiring skills and repairing air conditioning equipment,” he said.

“For the second term, we will train another 70 people in fish and frog farming, welding and working with limestone. So this training course will have two steps. The training can be short-term or long-term depending on the skill. The agricultural course takes one week and the service course takes four months,” he said.

According to Valda, the training aims to provide drug addicts with skills and a profession to earn a livelihood so they will not return to drug use when returning to their community or family.

He said this centre complies with national and international standards and has three major institutions contributing to the cause – Ministry of Social Affairs, Veterans and Youth Rehabilitation; Ministry of Health; and Ministry of Labour and Vocational Training.

He said the social affairs ministry provides rehabilitation services, education, counseling and life skills to drug addicts, while the health ministry offered medical services, and the labour ministry provides vocational training on skills for a career.

“The general principle is that we accept addicts from centres across Cambodia for training. However, acceptance depends on the centre sending them here. We also receive addicts from prosecutors, parents, guardians, families and other authorities,” he said.

Pheng Ny, director of the Polytechnic Institute in Preah Sihanouk province, said the labour ministry has allowed the institute to cooperate with the provincial drug treatment centre in providing short-term technical skills in agriculture and services under the project modernisation of vocational and technical education system 2021 for drug victims.

“We will work hard to support the initial operation of the centre’s first training session to be successful as planned,” he said.

Thou Sun, social affairs ministry secretary of state who attended the opening of the training programme, called on participants to master the skills and become good citizens and useful to families and communities.

MOST VIEWED

  • Wing Bank opens new branch in front of Orkide The Royal along Street 2004

    Wing Bank celebrates first anniversary as commercial bank with launch of brand-new branch. One year since officially launching with a commercial banking licence, Wing Bank on March 14 launched a new branch in front of Orkide The Royal along Street 2004. The launch was presided over by

  • Siem Reap airport to close after new one opens

    After the new Siem Reap-Angkor International Airport (SAI) opens in October, the existing complex serving the northwestern province will be “completely closed”, according to State Secretariat of Civil Aviation (SSCA) spokesman Sin Chansereyvutha. SAI developer Angkor International Airport Investment (Cambodia) Co Ltd (AIAI) last month

  • Girl from Stung Meanchey dump now college grad living in Australia

    After finishing her foundational studies at Trinity College and earning a Bachelor’s degree from the University of Melbourne in 2022, Ron Sophy, a girl who once lived at the Stung Meanchey garbage dump and scavenged for things to sell, is now working at a private

  • Rare plant fetches high prices from Thai, Chinese

    Many types of plants found in Cambodia are used as traditional herbs to treat various diseases, such as giloy or guduchi (Tinospora cordifolia) or aromatic/sand ginger (Kaempferia galangal) or rough cocklebur (Xanthium Strumartium). There is also a plant called coral, which is rarely grown

  • Ministry using ChatGPT AI to ‘ease workload’; Khmer version planned

    The Digital Government Committee is planning to make a Khmer language version of popular artificial intelligence (AI) technology ChatGPT available to the public in the near future, following extensive testing. On March 9, the Ministry of Post and Telecommunications revealed that it has been using the

  • Cambodia returns 15M Covid jabs to China

    Prime Minister Hun Sen said Cambodia will return 15 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines to China for donation to other countries. The vaccines in question were ordered but had not yet arrived in Cambodia. While presiding over the Ministry of Health’s annual meeting held on