Don Bosco Youth Center (DBYC), Mandalay

Since about 10 years, the Salesian Brothers – Don Bosco cater for the needs of vulnerable youth and street children in the Don Bosco Youth Center (DBYC) in Mandalay. DBYC provides education and vocational training to enable the youth to earn an own living. The training center accommodates 25 boys “at risk”. The boys receive an informal school education, moral guidance and vocational training courses: electric and electronics, computer skills and languages, and motor bike repair. In addition, DBYC operates a drop-in-center and night shelter for street children (mostly boys). The night shelter has a capacity of 50 street children.

To help the education and training of the street children we donated the hardware for a mini-bakery and for ice-cream production to DBYC. Two street boys attended bakery training and learned to make ice-cream: Now, the DBYC operates a coffee shop with a bakery for bread, rolls, and cakes and sells ice-cream successfully. In a next step, the street children are to sell ice-cream and bakery products on Mandalay streets.

PIN assists DBYC to identify a potential donor for a new vocational training center. The current training center is too small. Currently, DBYC can only run 3-month courses with 25 boys at risk. These 3-month courses are too short and do not help the general lack of vocational skills in Myanmar. Historically, technical and vocational education and training (TVET) opportunities are very scarce in Myanmar and in particular in Mandalay. According to the OECD just 0.5% of upper secondary students are enrolled in TVET at Government Technical High Schools in Myanmar compared to more than 40% in China and Indonesia and 35% in Thailand. Domestic and international companies in Myanmar identified the lack of skilled workers as a major hindrance for expanding their operations.