&FILE=/video/nansen2003_100k.swf&TIME=302&TITLE=<B>The Nansen Refugee Award 2003</B><br />Dr Annalena Tonelli
&BLURB=In a forgotten part of the world, Dr Annalena Tonelli braved beatings, kidnapping, banditry and death threats to wage a one-woman battle against tuberculosis, AIDS, illiteracy, blindness, malnutrition and female genital mutilation.

For her 33-year solo campaign to help Somalis - many of them returned refugees and displaced persons - UNHCR presented the 60-year-old Italian woman with the Nansen Refugee Award on June 25, 2003.

A devout Roman Catholic, she said she had known since the age of five that she wanted to dedicate her life to helping others. After taking a law degree in her native Italy to please her strict parents, she took up teaching in north-eastern Kenya, an area populated by ethnic Somalis.

She earned diplomas in tropical medicine, community medicine, control of tuberculosis and control of leprosy, and later branched out into treatment and prevention of HIV/AIDS. She also set up a school for deaf and disabled children, and was a leading opponent of female genital mutilation.

Sadly, Dr Tonelli was shot and killed in her hospital in Borama, Somalia, on the night of October 5, 2003. Her compassion and conviction will be sorely missed.