Working for long hours together with his team, Dr Atar provides healthcare to a population of 200,000 from a scarcely equipped hospital in Maban, Bunj, South Sudan. Monday 1 October 2018, he received this year’s Nansen Refugee Award for his long-term work to ensure that refugees, IDPs and local inhabitants receive essential medical care, first in Blue Nile State in Sudan, and from 2011 in Upper Nile State in South Sudan. Read more about him here.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Nansen Refugee Award is awarded yearly to an individual or an organization who does outstanding work for refugees, internally displaced persons and stateless people. The award highlights the humanitarian spirit and legacy of the Norwegian explorer, diplomat and scientist, Fridtjof Nansen, who served as the world’s first High Commissioner for Refugees.
Keynote speaker and UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador, Cate Blanchett, Syrian ballet dancer, Ahmad Joudeh, Norwegian pop artist, Sigrid, and composer and sitar player, Anoushka Shankar, honoured the laureate. Norway supports the Award, and contributes yearly to the prize money. Norwegian State Secretary Marianne Hagen and the rest of Norway’s UNHCR ExCom delegation attended the event.
Source: UNHCR.
Written by Anette Bjørnsen Wig and Sindre Bæk, Permanent Mission of Norway.
Photos: Anette Bjørnsen Wig, Permanent Mission of Norway.
