Previous Nansen Winners

Konstantinos Mitragas on behalf of the Hellenic Rescue Team and Efi Latsoudi, a human rights activist behind “PIKPA village” on the Greek island of Lesvos, are joint winners of UNHCR’s Nansen Award 2016. The award recognizes their tireless efforts to aid refugee arrivals in Greece during 2015. © UNHCR/Gordon Welters

Efi Latsoudi plays is pictured at “PIKPA village” on the Greek island of Lesvos. Latsoudi is a human rights activist behind PIKPA, where vulnerable refugees such as children, pregnant women and the disabled have been finding sanctuary since 2012. © UNHCR/Gordon Welters

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Butterflies with New Wings Building a Future, is a group of courageous women that work tirelessly to help displaced survivors of sexual abuse reclaim their lives in Buenaventura, one of the most violent cities in Colombia. © UNHCR /J. Arredondo

Sister Angélique Namaika was awarded for her exceptional courage and unwavering support for survivors of brutal violence in Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). In this region, many Congolese women and girls have been kidnapped and terrorized in the campaign of terror waged by the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA). Construction on her Nansen project – a cooperative bakery, was completed in 2015. © UNHCR/ B. Sokol

Hawa Aden Mohamed, widely known as Mama Hawa, was awarded the 2012 Nansen Refugee Award for her extraordinary steps to empower thousands of displaced Somali women and girls, including many who have fled war, persecution or famine. In 2013, she began the construction of the Fridtjof Nansen dormitory in Puntland, Somalia. The dormitory will provide internally displaced youth travelling to Galkayo a safe place to stay while they attend vocational training and sporting activities. © UNHCR/F.Juez

Nasser Salim Ali Al-Hamairy, founder of the Society for Humanitarian Solidarity (SHS) in Yemen, and his dedicated staff were recognized for their service to refugees who have fled conflict and famine in the Horn of Africa and crossed the treacherous Gulf of Aden. SHS staff worked around the clock to monitor about a third of Yemen’s 2,000 kilometre-long coastline, pick up survivors, provide emergency care and, all too often, bury those who die en route. With the prize money of the 2011 Nansen Refugee Award, SHS inaugurated the “Nansen” primary school in the Kharaz Refugee Camp in Yemen. In this way, SHS is helping refugee boys and girls - who remain at the heart of any society - to live in dignity and take hold of their futures once they leave the refugee camp space. © SHS/A.S.Hussein

British photojournalist Alixandra Fazzina received the Nansen Medal for her dedication to documenting and publicizing the consequences of war. Over a decade, Fazzina travelled around the world to portray the individual stories of uprooted people. The Nansen committee praised, in particular, her coverage of Somali refugees making the hazardous sea journey across the Gulf of Aden to Yemen; landmine victims in Kosovo; civilians stranded behind enemy lines in Angola; rape as a weapon of war in Sierra Leone; the abuse of children by militias in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Uganda; and refugee situations in Afghanistan and Pakistan. © UNHCR/Nilo photographes

Former British soldier Chris Clark and the 990 local and international staff of the United Nations Mine Action Programme in southern Lebanon, for their courageous work in removing tonnes of deadly munitions that had prevented the safe return home of almost 1 million Lebanese civilians displaced during Israel’s short conflict with the Hezbollah militia. Clark and the team detected and destroyed large quantities of unexploded ordnance and tens of thousands of mines, including cluster bomblets. Their work allowed people to return home and humanitarian agencies like UNHCR to operate. © UNHCR/ P. Taggart

A lawyer from Malta, Katrine Camilleri was recognized for her work with the Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS). The Nansen Committee praised her exceptional dedication to the refugee cause and her outstanding contribution in protection and assistance to refugees and for lobbying on their behalf despite threats and personal risk. © UNHCR/ A. Pace

Japanese optometrist Akio Kanai received the Nansen Medal for giving the gift of clear vision to tens of thousands of refugees around the world. He provided free eyesight tests and handed out more than 100,000 pairs of spectacles to forcibly displaced people. Kanai, head of Fuji Optical, started his humanitarian work in 1983 in Thailand with Indo-Chinese refugees, many of whom had lost their spectacles while fleeing their homes. © FujiOptical Co Ltd

Marguerite Barankitse, dubbed the “Angel of Burundi,” for her tireless efforts on behalf of children affected by war, poverty and disease. Through her work with her organization, Maison Shalom, Barankitse sent a message of hope for the future. The Burundian Tutsi and her team ran four “children’s villages” in Burundi as well as a centre for orphans and other vulnerable children in Bujumbura. She said her work was inspired by one goal: peace. © UNHCR