I filmed a documentary film for UNHCR Somalia on the life of the late Nansen Award winner Annalena Tonelli. The film was shot in Somaliland and Kenya. We used a mix of original footage of the work she left behind as well as featurettes of her beneficiaries and archival footage that pieced together her 33 years of working in the Horn of Africa.

 

Annalena, who would refer to herself by saying: 'I am nobody', received UNHCR's Nansen Refugee Award in June 2003 for her selfless commitment to the forcibly displaced and sick in Somalia and Wajir, northern Kenya. The 60-year-old Italian lawyer initiated programmes to tackle tuberculosis in Kenya and Somalia, worked in HIV/AIDS prevention and control, campaigned for the eradication of female genital mutilation in Africa and ran a school for hearing-impaired children. She was murdered in October 2003 at a TB hospital she set up in Borama, Somaliland. Despite the tragedy of her untimely death, Annalena's legacy continues to thrive in Borama, north-west Somalia, through her school for deaf children and her tuberculosis hospital, which also comprises a HIV/AIDS clinic. Assisting the displaced and local communities alike in the area, the school and hospital provide aid and hope to some of the most disadvantaged in Somalia.