Banteay Prieb is
a training center and home for people with disabilities. Here, men and women disabled by war, accidents and polio, come to live, learn, tell their stories, and draw strength from one another.
The Center's programs impart skills and values that enhance their sense of dignity and worth, and provide possibilities for income generation and self-support.
The Symbol
The symbol depicts a flying dove holding a branch in its beak. The Khmer inscribed in its wings translates as
"Everything for Peace"
Everything for peace
Banteay Prieb, which means Center of the Dove, is located in Cambodia near the city of Phnom Penh. Our main purpose is to provide vocational training to the disabled and give the students the ability to secure themselves a stable future.
The area, which once participated in the brutal Khmer Rouge genocide, has been transformed into a center of caring and empowerment.
Today, undetected landmines still prey upon innocent lives and many Cambodians live in poverty with lack of nutrition and health-care.
For those affected in these ways we offer specialized training in the subjects of mechanics, electronics, agriculture, sculpting, and sewing. Through a year of living in a community, students learn lessons that allow more opportunities than previously known.
Also, within the center are production workshops that provide some graduates with internships. In this way they are able to give back to Banteay Prieb and help future generations of students.
History
During the war years, the area around the Center housed a factory and a prison and was sadly one of the sites of the Khmer Rouge killing fields. Carrier pigeons - then used as messengers of war - were also trained here.
In 1991, pioneers of Jesuit Service Cambodia transformed the facility into a place where the dove could again be a symbol for peace. Since then, over 1,500 young Cambodians with disablilities have learned to be self-supporting and to live in peace and reconciliation. Throughtout its history, Banteay Prieb has worked in partnership with the Royal Government of Cambodia and other donors who share the concern for people with disabilities and those affected by war.
