South Sudanese surgeon wins UNHCR Nansen Refugee Award

GENEVA, Switzerland, September 25, 2018/ — UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, would like to inform that South Sudanese surgeon Dr. Evan Atar Adaha, as the organization’s 2018 Nansen Refugee Award winner. This annual award, which  honors an individual who has gone above and beyond the call of duty to help people forcibly displaced from their homes.

For 20 years, Dr. Atar has been committed to providing medical services to people forced to flee conflict and persecution in Sudan and South Sudan, as well as to the communities that welcome them. Based in Bunj, in north-eastern South Sudan, Dr. Atar runs the only functional hospital, serving more than 200,000 people. These include 144,000 refugees from Sudan’s Blue Nile State and the local Maban County population of about 53,000.

His team at Maban hospital carries out an average of 58 operations per week in difficult conditions with limited bed space, supplies and equipment. The hospital serves as a maternity hospital, as well as treating diseases like HIV and TB, and operates on a 24-hour basis.

For Dr. Atar, running the hospital is more than just a job- it’s a calling. His wife and four children live in neighboring Kenya, and he only sees them a few times per year. But every day he is reminded that the personal sacrifices he makes are small compared to saving the lives of displaced people who have nowhere else to turn.