Somali refugees board a smuggler’s boat headed to Yemen. Only 11 would survive. Photo: © Alixandra Fazzina

One of the world’s most prestigious peace prizes has been awarded for the first time to a photojournalist. Photographer Alixandra Fazzina has been named the winner of the United Nation’s annual Nansen Refugee Award for her work documenting refugees and victims of war.

“Alixandra Fazzina stands out as a fearless humanitarian who achieves something remarkable by unearthing and so vividly portraying individual stories of uprooted people,” said Antonio Guterres, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

With photographs that capture everything from the effects of land mines in Kosovo, child-soldiers in Uganda and refugees in Somalia, Afghanistan and Pakistan, Fazzina’s work has brought the images of war to the front pages of papers like Time, the New York Times and The Guardian.

Her dedication to uncovering the plights of victims around the world who don’t necessarily get mainstream coverage deserves to be recognized, the international human rights organization said in a statement.

“For two years in Somalia she received no pay and spent weeks and months on end with people on the run, following them and feeling so passionate about bringing these untold stories to the rest of the world,” a UNHCR spokeswoman said.

Fazzina is the first journalist, and the first photographer, to win the award since it was created in 1954. She will be granted $100,000 which she can donate to the cause of her choice. Fazzina’s award-winning photographs are collected in the upcoming book “A Million Shillings, Escape from Somalia,” which follows the dangerous escape of Somalian refugees to Yemen via a network of smugglers.

You can read more about Fazzina and her work by visiting the UNHCR website. And after you see some of her photographs, let us know what you think. How can photographers like Fazzina help change the world?