On July 18, 2009, a certificate commencement ceremony at Juvenile Correctional Center (CC2, Prey Sar) was held from 9am to 11am. The participants in the event are H.E. Dr. Kol Pheng (Senior Minister of the Royal Government of Cambodia and PUC Founding Father), Dr. Chea San Chanthan, PUC President, H.E. Nouth Sa An, Secretary of State of Ministry of Interior, H.E. Heng Hak, General Director of General Prison Department (GDOP), H.E. Mok Sambath (representative of H.E. Om Yengteang, President of Cambodian Human Right Committee), and several staff and instructors attended from the above institutions and the Press         The event started with the profile report by PUCLC director, Mr. Phun Vidjia and followed by general evaluation speech by Director of CC2. Special remarks were given by PUC president and PUC founding father. The event ended with the closing speech by H.E. Nouth Sa An.

            The report by PUCLC stated that 60 juveniles (10 female), who participated in the first legal education trained by PUC Law students lasting 25 weekends (Saturday), were graded mainly on their attendance, participation, homework, and exam. This assessment policy showed that the training methodologies used were student-centered. As a result, 44 juveniles, who graduated successfully, received a certificate of completion, books on morality teaching of Buddha, 10,000 riel from PUC and another 10,000 riel from Ministry of Interior. A letter of Compliment signed by Deputy Prime Minister was also given to 18 PUC Juvenile Justice Program students who volunteered to teach those 60 juveniles for 25 weekends.

            Both Mr. Chat Sineang and H.E. Nouth Sa An expressed their compliment and profound thanks to PUC due to the fact that PUC is the first university that generously provided such useful training to Juvenile offenders. This training couples with other vocational training programs offered by other GDOP’s partners. The programs encouraged the participated juveniles to paint the image which shows the general public that prison or correctional center is not a place to just detain wrongdoers but to rehabilitate them so that they are able to re-integrate into the community and avoid future commitment of offense. The training and other rehabilitation programs show that the society does not abandon those juveniles, indeed.

            In addition to Dr. Chea’s decisive support of this training program, Dr. Kol Pheng stressed that what all humans need is happiness. He exemplified Buddha’s stories that no one has ever committed a mistake. In order to live a happy life, one needs to have hopes instead of regretting, and one needs to learn from the mistakes and try to rehabilitate oneself into society.      

            H.E. Nouth Sa An and H.E. Heng Hak of GDOP encouraged the continuation of the training program for other juveniles. They also requested the expansion of training activities and training programs to other correctional centers, such as painting, dancing, music, etc.