Aurora Prize for Awakening Humanity

History

The Aurora Prize for Awakening Humanity is one of the projects of the Aurora Humanitarian Initiative. It was officially announced at 100 LIVES launch event in New York on March 10, 2015. The Aurora Prize is inspired by many stories of the rescue of Armenians during the Armenian Genocide.
The prize is named after Arshaluys Mardikyan, who after surviving the Armenian Genocide, escaping from slavery and roaming around the world appeared in the U.S. and took the name Aurora Mardiganian. She wrote a book called “Ravished Armenia”, which presents those dreadful events. This book had then become a script for the movie in which Aurora starred. For many years this movie was a crowd-puller in the U.S., and it played an enormous role in raising awareness about the Armenian Genocide.

100 LIVES

100 LIVES is a global initiative rooted in the events of the Armenian Genocide and co-founded by famous businessmen and philanthropists Ruben Vardanyan and Noubar Afeyan and President of Carnegie Corporation of New York Vartan Gregorian. The project discovers and publishes stories about survivors of the Armenian Genocide and their saviors. These stories are collected through academic research, personal accounts, and story submissions by the public to the 100 LIVES website.

Co-Founders

The Aurora Prize is the vision of Vartan Gregorian, Noubar Afeyan and Ruben Vardanyan. The prize was conceived out of a desire "to honor those who risk their own safety because of a heightened sense of humanity and responsibility and support life-saving causes in a tangible way".

Nomination

Each summer humanitarian organizations and members of the public are invited to nominate individuals they believe have overcome great external challenges to make an exceptional impact on preserving human life and advancing humanitarian causes.
Any individual or group that commits an extraordinary act of humanity can be nominated to receive the Aurora Prize. Self-nominations are not permitted.

Selection

All nominations are carefully vetted and reviewed through a rigorous process, monitored by a third-party independent observer. The selection of the finalists and the Aurora Prize Laureate is made by the independent Aurora Prize Selection Committee, which evaluates the nominees based on the following criteria:

Selection Committee

Inaugural Selection Committee of the prize included the late Nobel Prize Laureate Elie Wiesel, as well as Oscar Arias, Shirin Ebadi and Leymah Gbowee, former President of Ireland Mary Robinson, human rights activist Hina Jilani, former Australian Foreign Minister and President Emeritus of the International Crisis Group Gareth Evans, President of the Carnegie Corporation of New York Vartan Gregorian, and Academy Award-winning actor and humanitarian George Clooney.

Finalists

Ceremony

The Aurora Prize for Awakening Humanity Inaugural Ceremony was held on April 24, 2016 in Yerevan at the Karen Demirchyan Sports and Concerts Complex.

Hosts

The Ceremony was hosted by an Armenian opera diva Hasmik Papian and an American journalist and novelist David Ignatius.

Films

The Ceremony was opened by an animation film directed by Eric Nazarian featuring Serj Tankian’s “Aurora’s Dream” as the soundtrack.
Each of the finalists has been introduced with a documentary mini-film directed by Andrey Loshak.

Performances

The live music during the Ceremony was performed by State Youth Orchestra of Armenia conducted by Sergey Smbatyan. The Fanfares of the Ceremony was composed by Stepan Shakaryan. The Statuette, created by Manvel Matevosyan was presented with an excerpt from “Two Suns” ballet by “Ballet2021 Foundation” dance troupe (choreographer Roudolf Kharatyan), accompanied by Avet Terteryan’s and Arno Babajanyan’s music. The State Youth Orchestra of Armenia performed an excerpt from Aram Khachaturyan’s Symphony No. 2 (Bell Symphony). The co-hostess, soprano Hasmik Papian performed Barsegh Kanachyan’s “Lullaby”. The Ceremony was concluded with the song “Pour toi, Arménie’’ (For you, Armenia) performed by Gevorg Hakobyan and the State Youth Orchestra of Armenia.

Laureate

The inaugural Aurora Prize was awarded to Marguerite Barankitse from Maison Shalom and REMA Hospital in Burundi for the extraordinary impact she has had in saving thousands of lives and caring for orphans and refugees during the country’s years of civil war.
Barankitse has dedicated her life to providing safe haven and education to children escaping violence and abuse. When war first broke out in Burundi, Barankitse, a Tutsi, tried to hide 72 of her closest Hutu neighbors to keep them safe from persecution. They were discovered and executed, while she was forced to watch.
Following this horrifying experience, which truly tested her faith in humanity, Barankitse began her work saving and caring for children and refugees. Over the next 20 years Barankitse rescued and educated roughly 30000 children, and in 2008 she opened a hospital which has treated more than 80000 patients to date.

Organizations

Marguerite Barankitse, as 2016 Aurora Prize Laureate, selected the following organizations that inspired her work to receive a $1 million dollar award: Fondation Jean-Francois Peterbroeck, Foundation du Grand-Duc et de la Grande-Duchesse, Bridderlech Deelen.

Award Money

As Laureate, Marguerite Barankitse was awarded the $100000 grant and donated the accompanying $1000000 award to the organizations to advance aid and rehabilitation for child refugees and orphans, and fight child poverty.

Statuette

The Statuette of the Aurora Prize for Awakening Humanity was sculptured by Manvel Matevosyan and called Towards Eternity.

Selection Committee

The members of Selection Committee of 2017 Aurora Prize are George Clooney (Co-Chair), Vartan Gregorian, Oscar Arias, Shirin Ebadi, Gareth Evans, Leymah Gbowee, Hina Jilani, Mary Robinson.

Finalists

The nominations for 2017 Aurora Prize were opened on June 1 and closed on September 9, 2016. There were received 558 submissions from 66 countries for 254 unique candidates. The 2017 Aurora Prize finalists will be publicly announced in February 2017 following the deliberations of the Selection Committee.

Aurora Dialogues

Aurora Dialogues is a platform for discussions of the most pressing humanitarian challenges of the day. The 2016 Aurora Dialogues were held on April 23 in Matenadaran, Yerevan. Participants, including Selection Committee members Hina Jilani, Shirin Ebadi and Gareth Evans, offered their views on the global refugee crisis, the role of women in the humanitarian community, and the role of the media in bringing humanitarian crises to the world’s attention.

Aurora Humanitarian Index

Introduced during the Aurora Dialogues 2016, this specially commissioned study measured public perception of top humanitarian issues, based on 4600 people in six countries. The study’s findings revealed the global disconnect between perception and reality vis-à-vis the refugee crisis, by exploring the respondents’ opinions on the need and responsibility for international intervention.