ASIA, Inc. social worker Paw Pree has been named a Community Hero for 2011 by the Plain Dealer!

At age 16, Paw Pree was separated from her family and on the run, fleeing an oppressive military regime in her homeland, Burma.

A member of the minority Karen tribe, Pree joined 15 other runaways and worked her way through jungles and safe houses, eventually finding shelter in a refugee camp in Thailand, where she lived for seven years.

Now she lives in a Lakewood apartment, attends Cuyahoga Community College, plans to go to nursing school and works as a social worker at Asian Services in Action.

Read her full story here.