Media - Nansen Refugee Award 2020

The 2020 laureate of UNHCR’s Nansen Refugee Award is a child rights defender working in Colombia.

Mayerlín Vergara Pérez, Maye, has spent the last 20 years working to identify and rescue sexually exploited and trafficked children, many of whom are refugees.

She is a human rights activist, campaigner, and the Caribbean Regional Coordinator for the Renacer Foundationa non-governmental organization in Colombia.

UNHCR's Nansen Refugee Award Laureate 2020 hugs a young survivor of sexual exploitation.

The Nansen Refugee Award Global Laureate.

Nansen Refugee Award announcement press release

Winner's story

Winner's biography

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Nansen Refugee Award Regional winners

The first four winners were announced on 21 September 2020 as the regional recipients of this year's Award. Each in their own way, have launched grassroots initiatives to change the lives of people within their communities including refugees and internally displaced people uprooted by conflict in South Sudan, East Ukraine, Syria and Afghanistan.

A refugee school teacher striving to empower rape survivors, a scientist and mother of four on a quest to make reading and learning accessible to refugee children, an activist fighting to protect the rights of displaced people with disabilities and an aspiring refugee footballer using her love for sport to get refugee children off the streets and into the classroom.

The announcement of the 2020 global laureate of UNHCR's Nansen Refugee Award will take place at 00:00 CET 1 October