Aurora Humanitarian Initiative Chair Tom Catena delivered a series of lectures and took part in discussions on health and humanity.
 

In late 2019, Dr. Tom Catena, the Aurora Humanitarian Initiative Chair and 2017 Aurora Prize Laureate, delivered a series of lectures and participated in discussions on health and humanity organized by the leading academic institutions of the world, upholding the tradition that started after his appointment. Dr. Catena traveled from the United States to Europe and Africa to join distinguished healthcare experts and decision-makers from around the globe at conferences, forums and public gatherings, including the Paris Peace Forum, the World Health Summit and the AidEx Nairobi conference.

The first event that marked a moving start of Dr. Tom Catena’s tour was a lecture titled “Gratitude in Action: One Doctor. One Hospital. One Million Patients” at the Duke Divinity School in North Carolina. It was a symbolic homecoming for the graduate of Duke Medical School, and Dr. Catena had a heart-to-heart talk with the next generation about his life and work as a physician in Sudan’s Nuba mountains, which developed into a frank discussion about the mental, physical, and psychological challenges of working in a conflict zone where humanitarian aid is restricted, as well as finding one’s vocation and motivation.

“Try to structure your life so you can be of service to other people, using your abilities and your talents. There is always something you can do to contribute. It just takes a will. I think everybody has something to contribute. When you are young and want to figure out what you want to do, the only thing you can do is to try follow your heart. What is it you want to do; what gets you up in the morning to go to work when you are 20, 30, 40?” said Dr. Tom Catena. Thanks to a generous donation, the Duke Divinity School was able to set up the Thomas Gerard Catena Lectureship inspired by and named in honor of Dr. Catena. This annual lectureship will invite speakers whose work displays innovative scholarship, service and institution-building in theology, medicine, and culture.

Tom Catena also participated in two seminars at the Duke University, discussing the difficulties of practicing medicine in war zones and the ethics of providing healthcare to marginalized populations.

Another series of open discussions followed at the University of North Carolina and Tufts University in Boston, where the conversation with students focused on Tom Catena’s personal journey and Aurora’s impact on his life and work, as well as his unique professional experience with helping the underserved communities. In cooperation with the Harvard Armenian Students Association and Medicines for Humanity, Aurora organized a discussion panel at the Harvard University, during which Tom Catena and Pamela Steiner, Senior Fellow at the Harvard School of Public Health, talked about the importance of humanitarian aid at the grassroots level, using Sudan as a primary example.

Tom Catena also participated in the “HRHP Humanitarian Conference 2019: Examining Varying States of Protracted Crises,” organized at the Columbia University in New York where two panel discussions focused on the case studies of Sudan and Venezuela and the politicization of aid, the substantial reduction of humanitarian space, and the emergence of new actors in it.

Earlier in November 2019, the impact of political actions on healthcare in conflict areas and the role of independent nonprofit organizations such as Aurora in providing support to ground-level humanitarians were Dr. Catena’s talking points at the SciencesPo University in Paris.

Dr. Catena was among more than 7,000 participants who joined 33 heads of state and government for the three days of the Paris Peace Forum, dedicated to showcasing concrete solutions representing the six major themes of the Forum: Peace & Security, Development, Environment, New Technologies, Inclusive Economy, and Culture & Education. One of the 114 projects demonstrating their initiatives at the Forum in the Space for Solutions was The IDeA Foundation, an organization representing the Aurora Humanitarian Initiative. During a pitch session, Pierre Gurdjian, Managing Director of IDeA Europe, introduced Tom Catena and celebrated the Aurora as one of IDeA’s highlights.

On behalf of Aurora and its community of humanitarians Tom Catena attended the 2019 World Health Summit in Berlin, where he was a speaker at a keynote session titled “Transforming Human Capital: Investing in Health and Education,” along with senior representatives from IFRC, KPMG, World Bank, and academia. Dr. Catena also attended the official side event co-hosted by WHS and GPI and spoke there along with the former German health minister Hermann Gröhe.

At the AidEx Nairobi conference Dr. Tom Catena talked about ‘Innovations in Healthcare’ and the message of Aurora: “The vision of the Aurora Humanitarian Initiative is to give a voice to those who fall between the cracks of today’s humanitarian system – and that certainly includes the people in the Nuba mountains. As Chair of the Initiative, I strive to ensure it remains an effective vehicle to shed light on what’s happening there, the plight of the locals, how the people have suffered, how they need some help in certain areas just to get them going so they could eventually help themselves, that would make me very happy.”

During this intercontinental tour, the #AraratChallenge movement remained at the center of Tom Catena’s narrative, especially in the US, Rwanda and Kenya. His visit to Los Angeles and Fresno gave him a chance to connect with the Armenian Diaspora and further spread the message of Aurora, established on behalf of the survivors of the Armenian Genocide and in gratitude to their saviors, and paying it forward by helping people in adverse situations.