BRASILIA  —  A Brazilian nun who has helped refugees and migrants for 40 years on Wednesday (Oct 9) won the Nansen prize awarded every year by the UN High Commission for Refugees for outstanding work to protect internally displaced and stateless people.

Sister Rosita Milesi, 79, is a member of the Catholic order of the Scalabrini nuns, who are renowned for their service to refugees worldwide. Her parents were poor farmers from an Italian background in southern Brazil, and she became a nun at 19.

As a lawyer, social worker and activist, Milesi championed the rights and dignity of refugees and migrants of different nationalities in Brazil for four decades.

The UNHCR Nansen Refugee Award was established in 1954 in honour of Norwegian humanitarian, scientist, explorer, and diplomat Fridtjof Nansen. UNHCR announced the award in Geneva.

Milesi joins a long list of distinguished global laureates, including former US first lady Eleanor Roosevelt, the first person to receive the award when it was set up in 1954, the charity Medecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders) and Germany's former chancellor Angela Merkel.

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