{"id":45215,"date":"2021-05-25T15:02:59","date_gmt":"2021-05-25T14:02:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/unric.org\/en\/?p=45215"},"modified":"2021-06-03T16:04:28","modified_gmt":"2021-06-03T15:04:28","slug":"when-a-chamber-maid-won-the-nansen-prize-on-behalf-of-nordic-youth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unric.org\/en\/when-a-chamber-maid-won-the-nansen-prize-on-behalf-of-nordic-youth\/","title":{"rendered":"When a chamber maid won the Nansen prize on behalf of Nordic youth"},"content":{"rendered":"

Half a century ago, in 1971, Svana Fri\u00f0riksd\u00f3ttir, a 19-year old Icelandic girl scout, received the prestigious Nansen award on behalf of young Nordic volunteers. They had collected $5 million for refugees in Africa. The Nansen Award is one of \u00a0the world\u00b4s most prestigous humanitarian award after the Nobel Peace Prize.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The first Nansen laureat in 1954 was the human rights and humanitarian campaigner Eleanor Roosevelt, the widow of US President Franklin D. Roosevelt. In the coming years the laureats were European royals, distinguished scholars and campaigners for the cause of refugees.<\/p>\n

Girl scout, student and chamber maid<\/strong><\/h3>\n

\"\"Svana Fri\u00f0riksd\u00f3ttir, however, was far from being a royal born with a silver spoon in her mouth. She was raised by her grand-parents who had passed away at this point in time. Svana was studying at a teachers\u00b4 college and working nights and week-ends as a chamber maid in a hotel to make ends meet.<\/p>\n

She somehow also had the time to be an active girl scout. She and her fellow scouts heeded a pan-Nordic call to participate in a collection for refugees in Africa.<\/p>\n

In 1971 the bloody \u201cBiafra\u201d civil war in Nigeria (1967-1970) had recently been concluded. This was the first time that images of starving Africans with \u2018Biafra bellies\u2019 were shown on western television screens. This was also the year of the campaign for refugees in Bangladesh led by ex-Beatle George Harrison.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think volunteers knocked on doors in virtually every house-hold in this country\u201d, Svana Fri\u00f0riksd\u00f3ttir recalls. Her girl scout group in the town of K\u00f3pavogur was not an exception. Many humanitarian associations such as the Red Cross associations and NGOs actively participated.<\/p>\n

\u201cI devoted quite some time to this effort and several of us girl scouts were quite active in preparing the country-wide collection.\u201d<\/p>\n

A distant refugee problem<\/strong><\/h3>\n

\"\"The Pan-Nordic campaign was a success. It was decided that each of the Nordic country would nominate five young participants for the Nansen prize. It is not quite clear why Fri\u00f0riksd\u00f3ttir was chosen as a laureat on behalf of the Nordic youth. \u201eI felt it was a bit odd, because I didn\u00b4t think I did more than others,\u201c Fri\u00f0riksd\u00f3ttir says.<\/p>\n

The efforts of the Icelanders did not, however, go unnoticed. Sadruddin Aga Khan the head of UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, said when he announced the Nansen laureat that Icelanders had been extremely generous, donating 40 ISK on average. \u201eThis is also noticable because how distant Iceland is form Africa and Asia where the refugee problem is worst.\u201c<\/p>\n

Svana Fri\u00f0riksd\u00f3ttir received the award from the hands of High Commissioner Aga Khan in Geneva 4 October 1971.<\/p>\n

\u201eSvana Fri\u00f0riksd\u00f3ttir represent all the volunteers who particpated in the collection with such force that they may have visited every home in the five countreis,\u201c Aga Khan said.<\/p>\n

\u201eThey should have taken my place\u201c<\/strong><\/h3>\n

\"\"
\n\u201eI gladly accept it on behalf of the thousands of volunteers from the Nordic countries who really should have taken my place today. I am sure they feel, as I do, that our action stems from the desire to share with less fortunate people and even more so to particpate in a practical effort towards building a better world.\u201c<\/p>\n

In local news in Iceland Svana was presented as a girl scout, student and chamber-maid<\/em>. For some reason the chamber maid title was dropped in the presentation in Geneva.<\/p>\n

However, it was a studend and chamber maid who succeeded kings and queens, princes and princesses at the Palais des Nations in Geneva and collected the prestigious award.\u00a0 She didn\u00b4t have a long dress so it was sewn especially for her for this occasion.<\/p>\n

\u201eEveryone was very positive and cheerful in Geneva,\u201c Fri\u00f0riksd\u00f3ttir said.<\/p>\n

\"\"Soon after graduating from teachers\u00b4 college Svana moved to the USA where her husband J\u00f3hann P. Malmquist did a PhD in computer science in Pensylvania. She later studied arts and architechture and took up teaching when the family returned to Iceland. Retirement is on the horizon since she will turn 70 31 December.<\/p>\n

4 October 2011 when 40 years had passed since the award she offered colleagues drinks and snacks at work to celebrate. \u201eOtherwise I haven\u00b4t talke a lot about it.\u201c<\/p>\n

Her three children knew of course about it, not least because they used to play with the Nansen award medallion with their mother\u00b4s name inscribed upon-it. She doesn\u00b4t exclude that she will share the story with her grand-children on the occasion of the 50 year anniversary.<\/p>\n

Fri\u00f0riksd\u00f3ttir says she hasn\u00b4t followed-up much with participation in humanitarian or volunteer work. \u201eMabey I had a bit of a bad conscious because of this.\u201c<\/p>\n

Among princesses and presidents<\/strong><\/h3>\n

\"\" \"\"The Nansen-award is named after Fridtjof Nansen, the explorer, who headed the Refugee Agency of the League of Nations, the predecessor of the United Nations. ver\u00f0launin heita \u00ed h\u00f6fu\u00f0i\u00f0 \u00e1 Fri\u00f0\u00fej\u00f3fi Nansen. Many well-known individuals and associatons are among the successors of Fri\u00f0riksd\u00f3ttir sucha as Richard von Weizs\u00e4cker the President of Germany forseta \u00de\u00fdskalands, Val\u00e9ry Giscard d\u00b4Estaing, the President of France, \u00a0Norway\u00b4s Crown-Princess (later Queen) Sonia, US Senator Edward Kennedy, Opera singer Luciano Pavarotti \u00f3perus\u00f6ngvara, South African first lady Gra\u00e7a Machel as well as Doctors without Borders and Handicap International.<\/p>\n

The Current laureat is Mayerl\u00edn Vergara P\u00e9rez from Colombia for her work with refugees from Venezuela.<\/p>\n

However, Fri\u00f0riksd\u00f3ttir is the last girl scout cum chamber maid to receive the award.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Half a century ago, in 1971, Svana Fri\u00f0riksd\u00f3ttir, a 19-year old Icelandic girl scout, received the prestigious Nansen award on behalf of young Nordic volunteers. They had collected $5 million for refugees in Africa. The Nansen Award is one of \u00a0the world\u00b4s most prestigous humanitarian award after the Nobel Peace Prize. The first Nansen laureat […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":45238,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,20052],"tags":[20141],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unric.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45215"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unric.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unric.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unric.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unric.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45215"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/unric.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45215\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unric.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45238"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unric.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45215"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unric.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45215"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unric.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45215"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}