On September 24, 2024, the Aurora Humanitarian Initiative attended the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) 2024 Meeting in New York City. The Initiative was represented in a session titled “Innovating in a Time of Crisis,” a segment focused on the exacerbating factors on vulnerable populations around the globe and new ideas and solutions to address these critical issues. The panel featured Chelsea Clinton, Vice Chair of the Clinton Foundation and member of the Aurora Prize Selection Committee; Armine Afeyan, Chief Executive Officer of the Aurora Humanitarian Initiative; and Dr. Iftikher Mahmood, Founder of HOPE Foundation for Women & Children of Bangladesh.
During the discussion, Armine Afeyan clarified Aurora’s focus on empowering grassroots humanitarians. “[The Aurora Prize] is a participatory grant, and that’s founded on the premise that they are the best positioned to decode how that capital is allocated locally. We are, through and through, a localization organization, and that’s how the Prize gets distributed. <…> And I think the thing to take away from this is “human” in “humanitarian.” That’s what we are all about,” said Ms. Afeyan. She then highlighted the inspiring stories of Aurora Luminaries Dr. Tom Catena, who provides medical aid to the underserved population of Nuba Mountains in Sudan, and Syeda Ghulam Fatima, who works to free bonded laborers in Pakistan, as prime examples of this commitment.
Chelsea Clinton commended Aurora’s approach by saying: “You’ve been on this journey now for a decade and, through the Aurora Humanitarian Initiative and the Aurora Prize, had a chance to meet many extraordinary people and to support their work through recognition, and funding, and connectivity—including, of course, Dr. Mahmood.” She then proceeded to asking Dr. Mahmood about his project and the motivation behind it.
Dr. Iftikher Mahmood founded the HOPE Foundation for Women & Children of Bangladesh as a nonprofit organization in Florida in May 1999. The foundation’s mission is to deliver healthcare services to the most economically disadvantaged mothers and children in Bangladesh. “When I was growing up and studying medicine, I saw firsthand the suffering and devastation. So, I wanted to do something about it, because those deaths were mostly preventable with some early intervention, prenatal checkup and all this,” noted Dr. Mahmood. “I started very small. I started with one room and a part-time physician supported from here [in the US] and I focused on maternal health. The reason is, I felt that if we can keep the mother healthy, the whole family will benefit from it.”
In 2017, Bangladesh faced one of the largest refugee crises in history when over a million Rohingya people fled the ethnic violence in Myanmar and took shelter in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh. In response to the large influx of Rohingya refugees into Cox’s Bazar, the HOPE foundation rapidly launched a massive humanitarian response to provide healthcare to the displaced population. According to Dr. Mahmood, this was made possible by building local capacity.
“When I started the program, I realized that I did not have the tools, I did not have the human resources to provide that kind of service. So, in 2012, we were one of the first in Bangladesh to start a midwifery school. We recruited young women with basic education from the local community. We gave them three years of diploma training, which is still continuing. By the time the Rohingya crisis happened, we had almost 100 midwives trained,” explained Dr. Mahmood.
Reflecting on the power of individual impact in creating lasting change, Dr. Clinton remarked: “Your story exemplifies the ways in which we fundamentally believe, because of a lot of data, that durable and sustainable generational change starts with one person from a community starting with what they know. Then, the light of that optimism and Gratitude in Action attracts others, and then you have true impact at extraordinary scale and readiness to respond in a crisis, and it’s incredibly not only inspiring, but also instructive.”
Ms. Afeyan echoed that sentiment, stating: “Someone risking their own life to save others, to give others a chance, those are the people we’re looking for, those are the people that we need to be there for. So, through that network that is built as a result of the [Aurora] Prize selection process, those folks have impacted tens of millions of people around the world. <…> We look for a similar set of things, we make sure we are cultivating representative stories from around the world, but the core remains really the same.”
Concluding the discussion, Dr. Clinton called on the audience to put forward their candidates for the 2025 Aurora Prize. Any person can submit a nomination, which is then reviewed to assess the eligibility of the nominee.
In addition to participating at CGI, Aurora also hosted an Aurora Dialogues panel discussion titled “Addressing Humanitarian Needs: From Global Strategies to Local Action.” In recognition of the International Day of Peace, that event was held on the sidelines of the 79th high-level convening of the UN General Assembly in New York City, a time when global leaders converge to address pressing international issues.