Given a Chance: A Story of Strength, Survival and Success

“GIVEN A CHANCE” is a story about a man named Hong Net who was born in a remote village west of Cambodia, was raised Buddhist, and spent his childhood in labor camps in Cambodia, teenager years in refugee camps in Thailand, and his young adulthood in western Massachusetts. After his mother and brother died, he was separated from the rest of his family and was forced to work in the labor camps serving the new Khmer Rouge government at the age of 9. Hong, along many other children, were forced to work on rice paddies, building dams, digging canals, and clearing forests while constantly beaten and starved. Hong , together with many other children were forced to witness immense amounts of executions and cruel acts to instill fear.
In 1979, Hong fled to Thailand as a refugee, escaping the Killing Fields of communist Khmer Rouge and the invasion of communist Vietnam. For several months, Hong was forced to travel along side a group of more than 60 people consisting of Khmer Rouge soldiers and other children, while carrying ammunition and rice sacks through the fighting’s on the mountain ranges. Hong was the only one who had survived the killing, starvation, disease, and land minds before making it to Thailand. At the age of 15, Hong arrived in America with nothing but a broken arm with a plastic bag of his belonging’s and a pair of old flip flops where he lived with a foster family in Massachusetts. Hong then returned to his native land to help the newly democratic government rebuild a war-torn country
After receiving his college degree in political science, Hong became the first and only Asian-American to be elected to a public office in Lynn, and the second Cambodian-American in America. During the Bloody Coup in 1997, he returned to America and worked for the Department of Revenue. In 2011, Net ran for politics for the first time and was elected to the city council. In 2012, Hong authored the Lynn’s first Human Rights Commission, where he serves as an advisor.
Due to his past experience, he continues to fight for justice and is a strong advocate for his community. In 1998, Hong married his wife Thavra who is currently a mental health counselor and director at the Rainbow Adult Day Healthcare Center, which Hong is a business partner at. Today, Hong lives with his wife and children Anna and William in Lynn. Massachusetts.
This book and cable/streaming series will explore Hong’s amazing life of survival and perseverance. It will be an inspirational, human drama that will show viewers we can overcome adversity if we just refuse to be broken.