Chhay Haong | Helping leads to healing, Federal Way man says

For Chhay Haong, helping others is a way to heal himself.

Haong came to the U.S. in 1980 as a refugee from Cambodia. More than 20 years later, he still had nightmares of the time he was taken away from his parents at age 10 by the Khmer Rouge and forced to do hard labor. He later lived on the streets and nearly starved.

Now Haong owns his own small marble-restoration business in Federal Way. Last year, he founded the Khmer Rescue Mission of Washington, a tiny nonprofit organization, to provide emergency food supplies to people in Cambodia.

Haong came up with a simple idea of asking each of his customers for a $20 donation. At the end of the year he goes back to Cambodia with the money to buy rice and soy sauce for villagers in rural areas. One of his customers was so impressed with Haong's efforts that he decided to match the funds every year with a donation from his family foundation.

Haong takes his wife and two children to spend their Christmas vacation doling out food and school supplies, helping more than 2,000 poor families a year.

"They think I'm Santa Claus," he said. "We are here, we have everything. Those people have nothing. You give something, and somebody will remember you for life."

Working with local Cambodian governments to distribute food to the poor is also an exercise in forgiveness, Haong said.

When the Communists took over in 1975, "poor people raced to power and the rich and famous got murdered," Haong said. His family was prosperous and lost everything. What's worse, people everywhere "lost that caring heart."

But returning to help people has brought Haong peace. His nightmares have stopped.

"An old guy just kneel down in front of me," he said. "When I was younger, I begged people for leftover food. He did that to me and I know how he feels. That's why I kept going back."

— Kristi Heim