Somali refugee wins U.N. award for efforts to educate displaced children
The Hindu
Abdullahi Mire, a former Somali refugee, has been awarded the UN refugee agency's Nansen Award for his work in championing the right to education and putting 1,00,000 books in the hands of children in Kenya's Dadaab refugee camps. His Refugee Youth Education Hub has opened three libraries, providing a way for those traumatised by conflict to heal.
A former Somali refugee intent on bringing books and education to his compatriots languishing in sprawling camps in Kenya was on Tuesday named the winner of the UN refugee agency’s prestigious Nansen Award.
Abdullahi Mire was hailed for championing the right to education by putting 1,00,000 books in the hands of children in Kenya’s crowded Dadaab refugee camps.
“A book can change someone’s future,” Mr. Mire said in an interview.
“I want every child who is displaced to get the opportunity of education.”
Announcing the prize, United Nations refugee chief Filippo Grandi described Mr. Mire in a statement as “living proof that transformative ideas can spring from within displaced communities”.
Mr. Mire was born in Somalia, but amid unrest there his family fled to Kenya when he was a young child.
He spent 23 years in Dadaab — a sprawling complex of three camps that were initially built in the 1990s to host some 90,000 refugees, but which today are home to around 3,70,000, according to UN figures.
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