18 September 2011
The UN refugee agency (UNHCR) announced in Geneva Tuesday that its annual Nansen Refugee Award will go to the Yemen-based Society for Humanitarian Solidarity (SHS) in recognition of its life-saving work with refugees and migrants who make perilous voyages to Yemeni shores.

The award is given annually to an individual or an organization for performing an outstanding work to help refugees. It includes a $100,000 prize that the winner can donate to a cause of his or her choice. The award ceremony will take place in Geneva on October 3.

Founded by Nasser Salim Ali Al-Hamairy in 1995 as a non-profit, non-governmental organization, the SHS has a duty of helping people arriving by boat from Somalia and other parts of the Horn of Africa, as well as the impoverished local communities that host them.

Since 2007, Yemen LNG sponsored SHS that provides humanitarian support for refugees who make it to the coast of the Gulf of Aden. The Yemen LNG Refugee Transfer Facility in Balhaf provided medical care, food and water to more than 30,000 refugees prior to their transfer to the UNHCR Refugee Camp at Mayfa’a.