2006 NANSEN REFUGEE AWARD GOES TO JAPANESE MAN WITH GLOBAL VISION
Reuters, UK
July 4 2006
GENEVA, July 4 (UNHCR) – The prestigious Nansen Refugee Award will
go this year to Japanese optometrist Dr. Akio Kanai, who over more
than two decades has improved the quality of life of over 100,000
uprooted people around the world by testing their eyes and providing
them with spectacles.
The Nansen Refugee Award Committee selected Dr. Kanai, chairman and
chief executive officer of Fuji Optical, for his practical commitment
to humanitarian work and dedication to easing the plight of refugees
by improving their eyesight.
The committee found Dr. Kanai had "rendered exceptional service to
the refugee cause" and had made a huge and genuine contribution to
uprooted people in human as well as financial terms. Dr. Kanai’s
company is based in Japan’s northern island of Hokkaido.
The annual Nansen Refugee Award is given to individuals or
organizations that have distinguished themselves in work on behalf of
refugees. It includes a US$100,000 grant from Norway and Switzerland
for a refugee-related project of the winner’s choice and is scheduled
to be presented in October during the annual gathering in Geneva of
UNHCR’s governing Executive Committee.
"Tens of thousands of displaced people living in extremely difficult
circumstances have been given a new outlook on life thanks to Dr.
Kanai," said UN High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres. "The
gift of sight is precious. Restoring it makes a huge difference in
individual lives, making learning possible for children and adults
and pulling them back from the fringes of marginalisation."
Dr. Kanai, himself forcibly displaced from the northern Pacific island
of Sakhalin at the end of World War II, started his humanitarian
optometry work in 1983 in Thailand with Indochinese refugees, many
of whom had lost or broken their glasses while fleeing. Many were
undergoing courses ahead of being resettled and needed glasses to
study. Dr. Kanai checked the sight of the refugees and, in doing so,
started a long engagement with refugee work.
He began cooperating with UNHCR in 1984, and has since conducted
more than 24 missions to help uprooted people in Nepal, Thailand,
Azerbaijan and Armenia. He has donated more than 108,200 pairs of
glasses, provided optometry equipment, made cash grants and trained
local medical staff. Fuji Optical is UNHCR’s longest-serving corporate
partner.
Dr. Kanai’s family and his staff are also involved in Fuji Optical’s
Vision Aid missions. Some 70 employees have taken part in the aid
missions, using their holidays to work in refugee camps.
The Nansen Refugee Award, created in 1954, is named after Fridtjof
Nansen, the celebrated Norwegian polar explorer and the world’s first
international refugee official. Previous recipients include Eleanor
Roosevelt, Medecins sans Frontières, Queen Juliana of the Netherlands
and Graca Machel.
Last year, the award went to Margarita Barankitse, also known as the
"Angel of Burundi," in recognition of her work with separated children
whose lives have been devastated by war and the scourge of HIV/AIDS.
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