The 2024 Aurora Events, including the 2024 Aurora Prize Ceremony and the Human Rights and Humanitarian Forum, were held on May 8–10, 2024 in Los Angeles, CA, and organized in partnership with The Promise Institute for Human Rights at UCLA Law. On May 10, Dr. Noubar Afeyan, Co-Founder and Chair of the Board of Directors of the Aurora Humanitarian Initiative, Founder and CEO of Flagship Pioneering, and Co-Founder and Chairman of Moderna, and Dr. Eric Esrailian, Chief of the UCLA Vatche & Tamar Manoukian Division of Digestive Diseases, Philanthropist, Film Producer, Entrepreneur, Aurora Board Member and Co-Chair of the 2024 Aurora Prize Events, had an insightful conversation focusing on their philanthropic work and, specifically, the Aurora Humanitarian Initiative. The event, moderated by Raj Kumar, President and Editor-in-Chief of Devex, generated so much interest among the attendees that every seat was taken, leaving the room at the Luskin Conference Center packed.
Both Dr. Afeyan and Dr. Esrailian talked about their personal connection to the 1915 Armenian Genocide and their family history as something they had used as an inspiration for transforming the trauma into a driver to create something positive. “This is not a fresh wound. This is a wound that has been passed on generation after generation. As somebody who works in biology, I can tell you that there’s ample evidence to show that there are epigenetic changes in cells as a result of trauma that are transmitted. <…> And I’m not saying that’s the reason we feel this way, but it probably makes us vulnerable to these feelings more than people are vulnerable to other kinds of things that they carry generationally,” noted Dr. Afeyan.
Dr. Esrailian touched upon the concept of Gratitude in Action that is a core part of Aurora’s vision. “I think some of the most remarkable people do work without any recognition in corners around the world, in villages, in orphanages, in food banks, and soup kitchens, including in this country, and they don’t get the recognition. So, one thing I love about the Initiative is just highlighting individuals and then hopefully not only helping their organizations and the people they work with, but, I think, inspiring people. For me, I can go back in my life and trace all of these relationships and how they connect to one another and how they’ve inspired me. And many of the people I regret that I haven’t been able to express my gratitude to.”
When talking about motivation to help people, Dr. Esrailian noted that, more often than not, you just have to do what’s right and know in your heart that’s what you’re doing. He brought up Aurora Co-Founder Ruben Vardanyan, who is currently unlawfully detained by the government of Azerbaijan because of his support for the people of Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh) and their right to a democratic way of life. “Think about people like Ruben Vardanyan, who basically could live, probably, the best life in the world if he did anything but what he did. He could be, by all measures – economically, socially – he could be living an amazing life. But what he chose to do was to try to go help these people in Artsakh,” remarked Dr. Esrailian.
Explaining the reasoning behind Aurora’s focus on honoring saviors and, Dr. Afeyan recalled the input provided by one of the Co-Founders of the Initiative, Vartan Gregorian. “The late Vartan was truly, not just as an Armenian, but as an American, a really unusual, extraordinary person, and we were fortunate to have met him. And he was encouraging us to think about this in a kind of novel way. <…> We hardly ever use the word ‘savior’ because it’s a religious concept. But actually, they are literally just saviors. They save people’s lives. So, the question is, ‘Why are people not as much covering this?’”
Mr. Kumar then asked the speakers to share their take on modern humanitarian crises and make sense of the world we’re living in now, saying: “One of the things people in this room are grappling with, just listening to the conversation over the last couple of days, is the reality of the world today. It can be tempting to say, “Well, 100 years ago, that was then, things are different now.” And then you hear stories like the ones we’ve heard this week, from people who are going through very similar kinds of situations all over the world, even now. And I wonder how you process that.”
“I don’t get discouraged,” was Dr. Esrailian’s reply. “I do think, though, that we have to kind of adapt periodically. If we keep trying something, and it’s not working, we have to try a different channel. I love the fact that we have the presence of so many human rights lawyers in the room today because the legal channels are obviously things that we have to utilize and employ. But also, just sharing the stories of these individuals, because their stories hopefully will inspire others not to lose hope and motivate them to pursue different avenues in terms of education or professions and collectively make decisions.”
Dr. Afeyan, a serial entrepreneur and inventor, cited his professional background as one of the tools he uses to maintain hope. “In the world I live in, which is kind of envisioning totally new breakthrough technologies and trying to create companies, the mindset has to be ‘paranoid optimism.’ So, you have to be optimistic enough not to give up and to believe you can do things that nobody else believes you can, and you have to be paranoid enough not to think that you actually can, and you have to constantly check the assumptions over and over. <…> You need to believe it can work and that you’re willing to do the work.”