The Localizing Impact session of 2019 Aurora Dialogues, attended by prominent humanitarians and philanthropists, focused on Aurora’s unique approach to localizing impact and how this fits into the overall humanitarian architecture, the milestones achieved since Aurora’s inception, and the goals for the road ahead. All Aurora’s projects hinge on localization, harnessing knowledge, expertise and resources of local actors and empowering them to create lasting social change. The event was held on October 19, 2019 at the Freedom Square in Yerevan, Armenia. 
 

Andrei Sharonov, President, Moscow School of Management SKOLKOVO, opened the event as a moderator and went straight to the point: “We are here to look back four years and to discuss what does this Initiative mean for everyone and what does it mean for the Laureates.”

Before the Aurora Prize Laureates took the stage, Co-Founders of the Aurora Humanitarian Initiative had a few words to say. Noubar Afeyan spoke on the background of the Aurora, why they had decided to establish the Initiative and what the Prize was about.

“We thought rather than going back and finding – we did a little bit of this – descendants of the people who helped us [during the Armenian Genocide] and thanking them, what we should do instead is to go and find the very same spirit; the very same souls that helped Armenians a hundred years ago because we believe that they’re all alive. They’re all alive in different people. They’re all alive in our Laureates.”

Ruben Vardanyan, one of the three Co-Founders of the Aurora Humanitarian Initiative, continued the conversation by bringing an example of the real impact of Aurora’s projects. What he saw in Rwanda, where he was attending Maison Shalom’s 25th Anniversary events, was more than touching.

“I saw those kids and I saw that now they had the chance to continue studying and graduating universities. And you realize that this is exactly what you want to see. Those kids got a second chance to have a good life with a good education. And we hope we’ll get really something different for their future,” said Ruben Vardanyan.

The three Aurora Laureates told with their stories – completely different and, at the same time, having a lot in common. Marguerite Barankitse, founder of Maison Shalom and 2016 Aurora Laureate, talked about hopefulness and sudden changes: “There was no hope in the refugee camp. And suddenly somebody gives you hope. It’s amazing. Aurora changed the camp drastically. The refugee camp became a paradise for hope thanks to Aurora.”

2018 Aurora Prize Laureate Kyaw Hla Aung, lawyer and Rohingya leader, conveyed the feeling of transformation from being considered a criminal by the authorities to a renown respected activist. Being chosen as an Aurora Laureate gave him an opportunity to make the plight of the Rohingya people more visible to the international public.

Tom Catena, Medical Director of Mother of Mercy Hospital in Nuba, Chair of the Aurora Humanitarian Initiative and 2017 Aurora Prize Laureate, highlighted the local impact of Aurora in Nuba Mountains in Sudan. The support came when they needed it most as the hospital was almost closed because of severe financial problems. The Prize made Nuba people very proud.

“It was a huge help to us. [But even] more important was the publicity that Aurora gave me and Nuba people; people that have been persecuted for thousands of years. If you have seen how proud they were that their problems and their struggle were put on the world’s stage. It was something to behold,” said  Tom Catena.

Dato’ Dr Ahmad Faizal Mohd. Perdaus, President, MERCY Malaysia, represented one of the three organizations that were chosen by Kyaw Hla Aung to share the $1,000,000 grant that he had received as the Aurora Prize Laureate: “That helped us to continue our medical and health program in Myanmar’s Rakhine state, giving critical services to people there. And we had a major role to play, because a lot of bigger Western-based non-governmental organizations were not actually allowed to work in Rakhine by the authorities. We’re still working there and we have kind of the biggest access in Rakhine state to provide healthcare up to now.” 

Sarah and Martin Rubino, Aurora Fellowship program participants, had been volunteering at St. Theresa Hospital in Nzara, South Sudan more than a year. According to them, the Aurora Fellowship program gave them an opportunity to be more than ordinary people; it gave them an opportunity to help, to save and to change lives of others. 

“I’m a nurse-midwife. <…> My main work is that I tried to help keeping little babies alive. A lot of babies between 28-32 weeks are born because of mothers getting infections or malaria. And if you born before 32 weeks, you really don’t have much of a chance. But we were able to make some babies survive. That’s the small impact but tiny lives were saved because of that,” said Sarah Rubino.

In the end of the conversation, Vartan Gregorian, President of Carnegie Corporation of New York and Co-Founder of the Aurora Humanitarian Initiative, contemplated about the meaning of life and the reason of existence and concluded: “We become so abnormal, so out of the way that we have to find heroes to give meaning to our lives. More than ever, we need heroes as examples. And you have seen this already in our choice of people. They are reluctant heroes; they never knew they were heroes. Each Aurora Prize invests in people who are role models. They may be controversial, but they represent the best.”

You can watch the full video from the conference below (in English).