Ukrainian NGO Proliska is regional winner of UNHCR’s Nansen Award 2025
Ukrainian NGO Proliska is regional winner of UNHCR’s Nansen Award 2025
This award is not only a well-deserved recognition of Proliska, their entire staff and vital work – it is also a powerful acknowledgement of the tireless efforts and essential work of civil society across Ukraine. It honors the numerous NGOs, volunteers and communities whose critical contributions continue to shape and strengthen the humanitarian and recovery response during the full-scale war.
In the aftermath of air strikes and shelling, also when it happens at night or in remote areas, Proliska is often among the first to respond, operating alongside state and municipal emergency responders. Proliska has helped to evacuate thousands of people from frontline areas, ensuring that the most vulnerable groups, like older people, persons with disabilities and families with few resources, are not forgotten. And for those unable or unwilling to flee, Proliska’s teams continues to deliver essential aid, like water, medical care, psychosocial support and critical supplies.
“Across Ukraine, civil society and communities are doing indispensable work to support people in need. The courage and dedication of the Proliska team, often working in incredibly difficult and dangerous conditions, has saved countless lives and provided timely and dignified help to displaced people in their hours of greatest needs. Proliska’s work is truly emblematic of what it means to uphold humanity in the midst of a devastating war,” said Bernadette Castel-Hollingsworth, UNHCR’s Representative in Ukraine.
Proliska has been UNHCR’s NGO partner since 2016 following the beginning of the war in 2014 and throughout Russia’s full-scale invasion. Remaining operational across the most heavily affected areas, currently the organization works across 13 regions with a staff of some 1,000 people.
“It is a great honor to accept the Nansen Award on behalf of the entire team of the Humanitarian mission “Proliska”, meaning every employee and volunteer who, for 12 years of war in Ukraine, has worked for the sake of people in the most difficult circumstances. I am also glad that the Nansen Award returns to Ukraine once again, recognizing the immense scale of the humanitarian crisis, caused by Russia’s invasion,” said Yevgen Kaplin, head of Proliska.
This is the third time that the Nansen Refugee Award is received in Ukraine. In 1998, Mustafa Dzhemilev, the leader of the Crimean Tatar people, was the global Nansen Award laureate, honored for his commitment to the right of return of the Crimean Tatar people to their homeland. And in 2020, civil activist Tetiana Barantsova was awarded as regional winner in Europe for her work with displaced people with disabilities.
Proliska joins four extraordinary individuals, winners of the global and other regional titles of the prestigious Nansen Refugee Award 2025. Established in 1954, the Nansen Award honours individuals, groups and organizations who go beyond the call of duty to protect refugees, internally displaced or stateless people. It is named after the Norwegian explorer, scientist, diplomat and humanitarian Fridtjof Nansen.
“The Nansen Refugee Award celebrates extraordinary courage and compassion. This year’s laureates remind us that, even in dark times, compassion remains undimmed. Their unwavering commitment to protecting and uplifting displaced people offers hope and inspiration. They embody the spirit of Nansen — a belief that every person forced to flee, wherever they are, deserves dignity, safety and hope,” said the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi.
The year’s global laureate of the Nansen Award, village chief Martin Azia Sodea from Cameroon has helped integrate 36,000 refugees from the Central African Republic. The other regional winners are: Pablo Moreno Cadena, a business leader in Mexico who has become a trailblazer for refugee inclusion in the country; Taban Shoresh, founder of The Lotus Flower, a women-led organization that supports conflict survivors in the Kurdistan region of Iraq; and Negara Nazari, an Afghan refugee and co-founder of the Ariana Learning Centre in Tajikistan, which is a school for young Afghan refugees who were unable to access education.
The Nansen awards are made possible thanks to generous support from the Governments of Norway and Switzerland, the IKEA Foundation and the City and Canton of Geneva.
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