Jordan woman wins UNHCR Nansen Middle East Award

AMMAN — Abeer Khreisha, a Jordanian volunteer living in Madaba, has been named as this year’s UNHCR Nansen Award Winner for the Middle East. Khreisha has spent over 20 years passionately working to improve the lives of refugees living in Madaba, according to a UNHCR statement.

As a volunteer at the Princess Basma Community Centre in Madaba, supported by UNHCR and the Jordanian Hashemite Fund for Human Development, “Abeer is a true example of the hospitality that Jordan has shown to refugees”, the statement said.

From organising activities for refugee children at the community centre to supporting refugee women to set up their own businesses, she has continually gone “above and beyond” what is expected from volunteers, the statement said.

UNHCR’s Nansen Award is an annual accolade that celebrates those who have gone to “extraordinary lengths” to support refugees and asylum seekers, stateless persons and the internally displaced, according to the statement.