A former child refugee born in Somalia, Abdullahi Mire, has been named this year’s winner of the UNHCR Nansen Refugee Award.
The award honours individuals, groups, or organisations that work hard to protect refugees, displaced people, and stateless people as well as improve their lives.
Mire’s recognition follows his work at the Refugee Youth Education Hub (RYEH), which he established in 2018 to provide education for child refugees in Kenya.
He also worked with the UN migration agency, IOM, focusing on reintegration of former combatants.
''His education hub has opened three libraries in the camps – stocked with donated books – and expanded learning opportunities for tens of thousands of displaced children and youth,'' the UNHCR says in a statement on Tuesday.
'Change lives'
"I want to change the lives of refugee children and youth. The only way to do that is through education. If you give quality education to these children or youths, their lives will be improved for good”, he told the UN Assistance Mission in Somalia.
He added that societies impacted by years of conflict make good progress when education is made a priority, calling it the ‘’midwife of peace and stability.”
Mire currently works at the Dadaab refugee complex in northeastern Kenya, which has a population of more than 240,000 registered refugees, mostly from Somalia, of which around 56%, according to 2020 figures, are children.
The awards will be presented at a ceremony during the 2023 Global Refugee Forum in Geneva on December 13.
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