“More than 110 million people have been forcibly displaced from their homes – that’s about one out of every 74 people in the world. The UN Refugee Agency just came out with their Global Trends Report, which is highlighting the vast and escalated forced displacement, but in this, there are many beacons of hope and light and aspirations. One of the aspirations is the importance of elevating the voices and leadership of refugees themselves and people from the communities impacted by conflict,” – those were the opening remarks of Sasha Chanoff, Founder and CEO of RefugePoint and moderator of the Aurora Dialogues Online event titled “Uniting Humanity on World Refugee Day,” organized by the Aurora Humanitarian Initiative in partnership with RefugePoint and the Network of Engaged International Donors on June 20, 2023.

The speakers’ list also included Armine Afeyan, Executive Director of the Aurora Humanitarian Initiative, Noubar Afeyan, Co-Founder of the Aurora Humanitarian Initiative and Founder and CEO of Flagship Pioneering, Jamila Afghani, 2022 Aurora Prize Laureate and President of Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) Afghanistan, and Mirza Dinnayi, 2019 Aurora Prize Laureate and Co-Founder of Air Bridge Iraq. The talk focused on the important trend of democratization of humanitarianism when local leaders with lived experience are empowered to support people in need in their communities. 

Armine Afeyan, Executive Director of the Aurora Humanitarian Initiative, talked about the connection between modern-day heroes and the saviors that had inspired the Co-Founders of the Initiative. “Aurora exists to shine a light on the stories of humanitarians giving up themselves to support others. Much of this work is done in settings where violence causes population displacement, creating refugees. Aurora was founded out of the gratitude felt by descendants of Armenian Genocide survivors for their saviors. These survivors became refugees who then settled all around the world, creating a Diaspora. And this is a story that we see playing out time and time again today,” said Armine Afeyan.

Through its flagship program, the Aurora Prize for Awakening Humanity, as well as other projects, the Initiative has made a significant impact on the lives of refugees worldwide by empowering the people helping them on the ground. This was a point illustrated by Noubar Afeyan, Co-Founder of the Aurora Humanitarian Initiative and Founder and CEO of Flagship Pioneering, in his speech: “The Aurora Prize Laureates have channeled more than half of their received awards to support refugees and internally displaced persons in countries and regions that include Bangladesh, DRC, Ethiopia, Iraq, Malaysia, Myanmar, Rwanda, Sudan, Yemen, and most recently, in Artsakh and Armenia. Our Laureates are working in the most fragile situations, addressing the world’s atrocities, and oftentimes they’re working directly with those who’ve been displaced or forced from their homes.”

Sometimes, the humanitarians themselves are put in a position where leaving their country is the only option to be safe. No one is more familiar with the heartbreaking reality of it than Jamila Afghani, 2022 Aurora Prize Laureate and President of Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) Afghanistan, who has already had to make that choice several times. Having most recently moved to Canada after the Taliban took over her home country, she remains committed to helping the women left behind. “After taking over, every month the Taliban announce a [new] ban or restriction on women. Today, Afghanistan is the only country where girls are not allowed to go to school, women are not allowed to do their job, women are banned from public parts, from walking on the street. I can say women are imprisoned in their homes for the crime of being women,” explained Jamila Afghani.

Despite the great personal cost of such humanitarian work for those who choose to do it, they remain committed to bringing a tangible change to the world. For many activists, their mental health suffers from bearing witness to the modern atrocities perpetrated by oppressive or straight-out terrorist regimes like ISIS. Mirza Dinnayi, 2019 Aurora Prize Laureate and Co-Founder of Air Bridge Iraq, had faced this struggle when he was implementing a project aimed at rehabilitating Yazidi women rescued from sexual slavery where they had been subjected to extreme brutality. “From my personal experience, as I interviewed the first 200 women who were in captivity in 2015, I was completely traumatized. I couldn’t sleep. I was crying several times every day. But at one point, I had to decide whether to withdraw and go get treatment from a clinic to deal with the trauma that I got or to have to follow up my goals,” recalled Mirza Dinnayi. Needless to say, he chose the latter.

Summing up the discussion, moderator Sasha Chanoff, Founder and CEO of RefugePoint, brought up the contribution every person can make to supporting refugees, inspired and motivated by the stories told during the event. “With so many people forcibly displaced [today], and perhaps a billion, some estimates say, by 2025, because of climate change and other factors, we need more Jamilas, we need more Mirzas, we need more Aurora Prize humanitarian winners, but more broadly, we each see that we can take action today to do something to support others who have been forcibly displaced through no fault of their own," noted Sasha Chanoff.

You can watch the full video of the discussion in English below.