With the end of the term of Fr. Roel Soto as delegate for Cambodia under the THA Province in July 2023, the Rector Mayor announced the appointment of Fr. Eugene Xalxo, who is currently the rector of the Don Bosco Sihanoukville community.
Fr. Eugene made his first religious profession in his original country, India, on 24th May 1998 and applied to the Mission Ad Gentes, then he was sent to Cambodia as a cleric, arriving in Thailand on 9th December and to Phnom Penh on 15th December 2001. He did his practical training at Don Bosco Phnom Penh and Don Bosco Sihanoukville and was sent for theology at Messina in Italy, being ordained in India on17th May 2008. After 15 years of his Salesian apostolate as a missionary, working in Poipet and Sihanoukville, he was given Cambodian nationality last July.
“In the name of the Salesian community, I want to thank Fr. Roel Soto for his service as delegate for the Cambodian mission,” he said during the first Cambodian confreres assembly in Phnom Penh on 3rd August, with words of gratitude also for Br. Roberto Panetto, who was the bursar of the Don Bosco Foundation of Cambodia, now succeeded by Fr. Arun Michael.
The Cambodian delegation was created by the Rector Major and his council in 2013 inside the THA provinces that includes Salesian projects in Thailand, Laos and Cambodia. The first delegate was Fr. Roel Soto, a missionary from the Philippines, who led a process of consolidation of the Salesian communities in the country and the creation of the DBFC as a local NGO and DBFC International for the management of the Salesian activities in favor of Cambodian children and youth in the different programs, including technical schools and the Children Fund.
