Paw Pree, once refugee from Myanmar, is now lifeline for others: Community Heroes 2011

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- 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.

Because of her language skills -- she speaks Thai, Burmese, English and her native tongue, Karen -- and her commitment to helping people, Pree is a lifeline for other Southeast Asian refugees being resettled in the Cleveland area.

"I love working with people," Pree, 25, said in a recent interview. "As a Christian, Jesus is my role model. He helped and cured a lot of people."

Between 400 and 500 refugees, Muslims and Christians, from Burma (now known as Myanmar) are living in Greater Cleveland, Pree said. "I'm the one who can talk to them," she said. "I'm their voice."

But she is more than just an interpreter. And she helps non-Asians as well, mentoring preschool to high school kids through an Asian Services program.

"She might get a call at 2 a.m. from someone saying, 'I'm in the hospital,' and she will go there," said her supervisor, Kitty Leung. "People generally rely on her a lot."

While living in the camp, Pree studied English and was an outreach worker for the American Refugee Committee, which was providing services there and working to resettle the more than 4,000 residents of the camp.

Year after year, Pree hoped to get free, but she knew that those who got out usually had family or political connections in the Western world.

It was a sad life, she said, watching people come and go and checking a board every day to see whether her name was posted for a departure, only to be let down over and over again.

"I felt no hope, no future living in the camp," she said. "You live to die."

Finally, in 2008, Pree saw her name posted. "I was so happy," she said. "I ran to my supervisor and said, 'I found my name. I'm going to be leaving you soon.' "

Thirty minutes later, she said, she was told she was going to Cleveland. "I said, 'Where's Cleveland? Do you have a map?' "

More heroes

Every year The Plain Dealer highlights people in Greater Cleveland who saw a need and stepped up to answer it -- sometimes risking injury to save lives, sometimes risking time and effort to make a change in the community. Here are the heroes of the past three years and a link to all of this year's stories.

Two days later -- July 16, 2008 -- she landed in Cleveland. "I'm all by myself all the way," she said. "I don't even know who's going to pick me up."

A person from Catholic Charities met her at the airport and shuttled her to a new life in a strange new world.

"You have to have hope," Pree said. "And be willing to work hard."

Pree, who has two brothers and one sister, has not seen her family since she fled her homeland. And her father and mother, rice farmers, have no phone.

When she got to Cleveland, it was arranged for her to call her mother who had to walk an hour and a half to a phone.

But Pree didn't want to say too much in their conversation because she believed the phones could be tapped and her family fears the majority's regime.

"I said, 'Hi mom,' " Pree said, recalling her first contact with her mother in seven years. "She was quiet. I said, 'Are you there?' "

Pree said she deeply misses her family, but her faith, she said, tempers the pain of separation.

"Even if we don't see each other one more time," she said. "We have hope that we will see each other in Heaven."

Plain Dealer news researcher Jo Ellen Corrigan contributed to this story. To reach this Plain Dealer reporter: momalley@plaind.com, 216-999-4893

Source: http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2011/12/paw_pree_once_a_refugee_is_now.html

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