NAROM'S STORY

narom Bun - Accountant

My passion is to support poor families in helping their children go to school.

I was born in Phnom Penh and lived with my parents, my sister, and my brother.   When I was around seven years old, I had to move to the provinces with my sister and grandmother.  My family had planned to move there from Phnom Penh, so they sent my sister and I first.  This was a very difficult time for me as I really missed my brother, my parents, my cousins and my friends.  After six months away, I moved back to Phnom Penh to live with my parents again as they decided we would stay living in Phnom Penh.

I first heard about God from my brother, who had started going to work with Christians and he noticed that everyone was happy.  I started attending church with my brother as well.  We were very close. When I was about 25 years old my brother passed away.  He had seen someone robbing his neighbour, and yelled at them to stop.  The thief then murdered him.  After this, I couldn’t keep going to the same church, I was so angry at God - I didn't understand why my beloved brother had to die.  During this time I had Christian friends who knew what had happened and they were praying for me.  During these times of praying and crying out to God, I knew that He was true. I still had questions about why I had to go through these trials and challenges, and I still do not understand but I choose to trust God anyway.

I started school at the age of six, and I was able to finish high school.  My family were very poor and had no money for me to go to university.  I started to work as a part time volunteer cleaner for three years, The people I worked for knew I was studying accounting, they let me build up my computer skills, and then my book keeping skills.  By the time I graduated university I became their full time accountant and worked for them for ten years. I started working for Flame in October 2016 as the accountant.

I remember a time, before I was working for Flame, when my own child was sick and I had to take her to hospital with a fever.  We were so scared, not knowing what was wrong, and hoping the doctors could help her.  When we were able to go home with her, I remember seeing children out on the streets sleeping with their parents at 1am.  I started crying, thinking about what that would be like for my own children if we had to live that way. I like working for Flame as I love children, and my passion is to support poor families in helping their children go to school.  I hope I can help more children in more ways as I continue my work here.