Chhaya Chhoum’s journey to the Bronx began in the forced labor camp where the Khmer Rouge, during its genocidal rule in 1970s Cambodia, had forced her parents to wed.

Her mother, who was 18, fled with her family, carrying her infant through jungle trails to refugee camps in Thailand. But the camps offered neither safety nor a future. So the family began a second journey: applying for refugee resettlement in the United States.

By the time they were brought to New York, Ms. Chhoum had spent almost seven years in the camps.

The family thrived in the Bronx. Her mother became a mental health worker, a leader in the community. And as an adult, Ms. Chhoum founded an organization, Mekong NYC, that provides services for Southeast Asian refugees and their families.

“I am as Bronx as it gets, as you probably can tell by my accent,” she said. “That’s the whole of me: refugee, child of refugees and raised in the Bronx.”