FLOW Mission & History

     Welcome to the Future Light Orphanage of Worldmate, the home of more than 287 orphans in Cambodia. We call ourselves the Future Light Orphanage of Worldmate because the children who live here are learning the skills necessary to lift themselves out of poverty towards a brighter future. We want to equip these children with skills needed to become the future leaders of Cambodia.

     It is remarkable to think about how much the Future Light Orphanage of Worldmate has progressed when gazing at the serene beauty apparent on its grounds today. Started in 1993 with personal funds and those left over from a grant given by the Figaro Foundation of France, FLOW has now grown to became to more than 287 children in Cambodia. Sustained completely by donations from abroad, FLOW still carries on the same mission it always did: raising its children with love, equipping them with the English and computer skills necessary to survive in a competitive world, and sending them off into it with eyes wide open. Indeed, the Future Light Orphanage of Worldmate had its roots long before its conception.

     The founder, Ms. Phaly Nuon, was one of millions of Cambodians ousted from their homes during the Pol Pot era (between 1975 and 1979) and forced to work in agrarian concentration camps under communist control. In 1993, Ms. Phaly was repatriated back to Cambodia, supported by a grant from UNHCR for her voyage home with 91 orphans and four widows in her care. The orphanage was first located to an area behind the Chinese Embassy before finally moving to a rural location on the outskirts of Phnom Penh. Not long after, FLOW registered as a non-governmental organization. Ms. Phaly was awarded the much covered Action Humanitarian Prize from France in 1994 as well as the Ramon Magsaysay Award (Asia’s equivalent of the Nobel Prize) from the Philippines in 1998 for her efforts in helping orphans in Cambodia.

     The mission of Future Light Orphanage of Worldmate is to care for its children, providing them with a warm environment, supplying food, clothes, school supplies, education and extracurricular activities until they are 18. They attend English and computer classes and have the option of taking courses and have the option of taking Khmer traditional arts, such as classical Cambodian ballet and classical instruments, and training in sewing or tailoring and silk weaving. After “graduating” from FLOW, the children go out and find work for themselves, work within the Future Light Orphanage’s walls, or teach in the rural schools as English and computer teachers. They are given a choice to decide on what to do in their lives. The skills and countless memories that they’ve gathered here will serve them well in the future.

SUNRISE Library, donated by the Rotary Club of Honolulu Sunrise
and the Ed and Susan Catmull family and the FLOW children dancing performance
of cutting ribbon during opening ceremony day, Nov 06, 2004.

The FLOW children receive care, school supplies, school uniform,
and bicycle to go to school.

The FLOW children's mealtime. They have three meals per day.