About Hong

Hong was born in Koh Kong province, Cambodia in 1967. During the Communist Khmer Rouge reign from 1975 to 1979 under Pol Pot, Hong and millions of others endured the hardship of forced labor in the rice paddies which were known as “The Killing Fields.” He was one of the many people who were forced to migrate to the rural areas of Cambodia to be “re-educated” about the ideals of an agrarian utopia under Pol Pot’s reign of terror. Amid the mass evacuation, Hong was separated from his biological family. He later escaped to live in an orphanage center in a refugee camp in Thailand.

Hong arrived in the United States alone in 1982 and lived with a foster family in South Hadley, Massachusetts. Like many other immigrants, adapting to a new life in a new country was difficult for him.

After experiencing the devastation of his country and witnessing the living conditions of his fellow countrymen especially the poor, when he returned to his native land in 1993, Hong made a promise that he would go back to help them. Honoring that promise the following year, Hong returned to Cambodia to work for two international non-profit organizations, the Cambodian-American National Development Organization (CANDO) and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP). In that role, he assisted the government in job creation, budget, education, and promote tourism. Hong also founded an international language center in the capital city of Phnom Penh teaching English and computer skills to over 800 local students.

After the coup d’etat in 1997, Hong returned to the US, where he continued his work teaching immigration and citizenship classes to new immigrants in Lowell. He also worked as a case manager for the South Cove Community Health Center in Lynn and Boston, focusing on youth gang and substance abuse prevention. Hong is a Lynn City Councilor-At-Large and Child Support Enforcement Specialist at the Massachusetts Department of Revenue.

Hong graduated from Holyoke Catholic High School in 1988 and the University of Massachusetts in Amherst in 1992 with a BA in Political Science. Hong lives in Lynn with his wife, Thavra, a Mental Health Counselor at Catholic Charities and Program Director at Rainbow ADHC of Lynn. They live with their two children, Anna and William,  all whom attended the Lynn public schools.