Former Somali Refugee Wins UN Prize for Efforts in Kenya Camp

Abdullahi Mire, 36, was hailed for championing the right to education by putting 100,000 books in the hands of children in Kenya's crowded Dadaab refugee camps.

"A book can change someone's future," Mire told AFP 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 Mire in a statement as "living proof that transformative ideas can spring from within displaced communities."

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 370,000, according to UN figures.

Monumental odds

Against what the UNHCR described as "monumental odds," Mire not only completed his primary and secondary education in the camp, but managed to go on to complete a degree in journalism and public relations.

"My case is rare, and that inspires me to give back," he said.

Mire, who on occasion has worked for AFP, was resettled to Norway around a decade ago, but while he liked living there, he soon decided to return to Kenya.

"Europe is nice and safe, but it depends what you want in life," he said over the phone from Nairobi.

"There was something telling me that I could have an impact here, more than in Oslo."

Back in Kenya, he was working as a journalist and reporting a story in Dadaab one day when a girl named Hodan Bashir Ali approached him and asked if he could help find her a biology book.

She wanted to be a doctor, she said, but at her school 15 students had to share a single text book.

"That was the start of my calling," Mire said, adding that he bought the book for Hodan, who is now a registered nurse and still aspiring to become a doctor.

"That book opened a door for Hodan," he said. "She is inspiring."