The Nansen Refugee Prize has been awarded every year since 1954 to a person or organisation as a recognition of exceptional services performed for refugees. The award consists of a commemorative medal and the amount of 100,000 USD donated by the government of Norway and Switzerland and it is the most prestigious honour awarded by the UN Agency for Refugees (UNHCR).

The award winner this year is sister Angelique Namaika, a Congolese nun who helped hundreds of women, victims of rapes and abuses committed by the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) and other groups activating in the north-eastern area of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

Sister Angélique Namaika, through her Centre for Reintegration and Development, has helped transform the lives of more than 2,000 women and girls who have been forced from their homes and abused. Sister Angélique herself was displaced by the violence in 2009 while living in the town of Dungu. The empathy and very personal approach of sister Angélique were essential for the recovery of abuse victims.

Repairing the lives of these women is a very difficult task but sister Angelique managed. She helped the women learn a trade, start a small business or go back to school. “Sister Angélique works tirelessly to help women and girls who are extremely vulnerable due to their trauma, poverty and displacement. The challenges are massive, which makes her work all the more remarkable – she doesn’t allow anything to stand in her way.”, said Antonio Guterres, UN High Commissioner for Refugees, according to http://www.unhcr-centraleurope.org/ro.

Considered by those around her as a real heroine, the new winner of the Nansen prize promises she will never stop doing what she can to give them hope, and the chance to live again. “It is difficult to imagine how much the women and girls abused by the LRA have suffered. They will bear the scars of this violence for their whole lives. This award will mean more displaced people in Dungu can get the help they need to restart their lives. ", the nun said.

The announcement of the 2013 Nansen prize coincides with the release of a report about life for those displaced by LRA violence. The report, produced by UNHCR and the IDMC (Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre), highlights why LRA violence has created such severe and long-lasting trauma for both the abductees and the hundreds of thousands of people still too afraid to return home. Today, an estimated 320,000 of them are still far from their homes.

Source: http://www.unhcr-centraleurope.org/ro/stiri/2013/calugarita-congoleza-castiga-prestigiosul-premiu-nansen-pentru-refugiati.html