Prize Archives

Aurora Prize 2017 set for April 24-May 28

November 30, 2016 By administrator

aurora-prize-217 The 2017 Aurora Prize finalists will be announced on April 24, 2017, the annual day of remembrance for victims of the Armenian Genocide. One of these finalists will then be named as the 2017 Aurora Prize Laureate at a special ceremony on May 28, 2017, in Yerevan, Armenia. During the month between April 24 and May 28, the Aurora Humanitarian Initiative will organize a global program of activities to profile the inspirational stories of the 2017 finalists, as well as broader humanitarian endeavors.

The Aurora Humanitarian Initiative and the $1 million Aurora Prize for Awakening Humanity were established on behalf of the descendants of the survivors of the Armenian Genocide, and in gratitude to those who risked their own wellbeing to help them survive. At the inaugural awards ceremony, held in Yerevan, Armenia, on April 24, 2016, Marguerite Barankitse from Maison Shalom and REMA Hospital in Burundi became the first laureate.

Barankitse was recognized for the extraordinary impact she has had in saving thousands of lives and caring for orphans and refugees during the years of civil war in Burundi. Consistent with the rules of this unique prize, the laureate selected the following three organizations as recipients of $1 million in humanitarian support: the Fondation du Grand-Duc et de La Grande-Duchesse du Luxembourg, Fondation Jean-François Peterbroeck (JFP Foundation), and the Fondation Bridderlech Deelen Luxembourg.

In a continuing effort to transform the Armenian experience from that of ‘victim’ to dignified, active global citizen, each year’s Aurora Prize ceremony is a celebration of the spirit of shared humanity – and resilience. This time, that celebration will culminate on May 28, in Yerevan, Armenia.

Known as First Republic Day, May 28 embodies the resilience of survivors who, just three years after the Genocide, declared and sustained an independent Armenian Republic from 1918 to 1920. The ceremony and accompanying events will highlight this journey from death to life, from horror to hope, from tragedy to revival.

The 2017 Aurora Prize finalists will be announced on April 24, 2017, the annual day of remembrance for victims of the Armenian Genocide. One of these finalists will then be named as the 2017 Aurora Prize Laureate at a special ceremony on May 28, 2017, in Yerevan, Armenia. The Laureate and finalists will be chosen by the Aurora Prize Selection Committee from a total of 558 nominations submitted from 66 countries around the world.

Noubar Afeyan, Co-Founder of the Aurora Humanitarian Initiative, observed: “Underpinning the Aurora Prize is a desire to pay tribute to those who have dedicated their lives to help others survive and thrive. It is gratifying that in such a short time this initiative has found resonance and appreciation in communities and countries around the world.”

Ruben Vardanyan added, “On May 28, Armenian survivors dared to declare independence in the aftermath of the Genocide and in the midst of regional tumult. Their plight embodies our conviction that victims very soon became not just survivors but also active, committed members of global society. The Aurora Humanitarian Initiative highlights the promise of transformation from helpless to hopeful, a possibility that is the right of all people.”

During the month between April 24 and May 28, the Aurora Humanitarian Initiative will organize a global program of activities to profile the inspirational stories of the 2017 finalists, as well as broader humanitarian endeavors. The Aurora Dialogues – a series of thought-provoking discussions featuring international humanitarian figures – debuted in Yerevan during the inaugural Aurora weekend. Those dialogues will also be expanded and shared with communities around the world and will also be a major component of the Aurora May 28 weekend, in Yerevan.

NEW YORK Balakian Receives His Pulitzer Prize

November 2, 2016 By administrator

balakian-pulitzer-prize NEW YORK (Armenian Weekly)—Peter Balakian received the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for poetry at the 100th anniversary Ceremony of the Pulitzer Prizes held at Columbia University on October 13. Balakian was one of the seven recipients in the fields of Letters, Drama, and Music.

Among the other recipients were Viet Thanh Nguyen in fiction for his novel The Sympathizer, Lin-Manuel Miranda in drama for the musical Hamilton, and jazz composer Henry Threadgill for “In for a Penny In for a Pound.” Among the fourteen prizes in journalism were Kathryn Schultz for Feature Writing at the New Yorker, Alyssa J. Rubin for International Reporting at The New York Times, and the Los Angeles Times Staff for Breaking News Reporting.

Professor Daniele Allen, Director of the Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics at Harvard University, was the keynote speaker. The awards were presented by Lee C. Bollinger, President of Columbia University.

The Pulitzer committee cited Ozone Journal for “poems that bear witness to the old losses and tragedies that undergird a global age of danger and uncertainty.” Writing about Ozone Journal in Consequence Magazine, Keith Jones wrote: “Balakian is a master of—the drifting, split-second mirage, the cinematic dissolve and cross-cut as well as the sculptural, statuesque moment chiseled out of consonant blends and an imagistic, jazzman’s ear for vowels… beautiful, haunting, plaintive, urgent, in our dying world’s age, these poems legislate a vital comportment to the demands of our shared present, timely and untimely both.” And David Wojahn in Tikkun wrote: “Few American poets of the boomer generation have explored the interstices of public and personal history as deeply and urgently as has Balakian.”

Balakian is the first Armenian American to be awarded a Pulitzer Prize since William Saroyan in 1940.

Aurora Prize: Beneficiaries of $1 mln award confirmed

August 20, 2016 By administrator

aurora The $1 million award for the first Aurora Prize for Awakening Humanity will fund projects in Rwanda, Ethiopia, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Brazil. The proceeds will support initiatives that are combatting child poverty and advancing aid and rehabilitation for child refugees and orphans, the website of the Aurora Prize said.

As Aurora Prize Laureate, Marguerite Barankitse – founder of Maison Shalom and the REMA Hospital in Burundi – received a $100,000 grant, and was offered the chance at even greater impact by being asked to nominate humanitarian organizations which would receive the Prize’s $1 million award. Barankitse chose her longtime partners: Fondation du Grand-Duc et de la Grande-Duchesse; Fondation Jean-François Peterbroeck; and Fondation Bridderlech Deelen. These three organizations announced the projects they have chosen as recipients of the funds.

“The beauty of the Aurora Prize is the unique ability to share this wonderful gift with causes so close to my heart,” said Aurora Prize Laureate Marguerite Barankitse. “Through the Aurora Prize we can show children around the world the power of love and kindness over hate and violence.”

The Fondation du Grand-Duc et de la Grande-Duchesse will use the award to support their project providing for 200 Eritrean refugees arriving in Ethiopia from Egypt. The project protects young people from trafficking and incarceration, provides vocational training and is building a training center that can accommodate at least 200 refugees per year.

Yerevan: Marguerite Barankitse wins inaugural Aurora Prize in Armenia

April 24, 2016 By administrator

Marguerite Barankitse from Burundi won the inaugural Aurora Prize for Awakening Humanity on Sunday, April 24 evening.

Barankitse, from Maison Shalom and REMA Hospital in Burundi, saved thousands of lives and took care of orphans and refugees during the years of civil war in Burundi.

When war broke out, Barankitse, a Tutsi, tried to hide 72 of her closest Hutu neighbors to keep them safe from persecution.

They were discovered and executed, whilst Barankitse was forced to watch. Following this gruesome incident, she started her work, saving and caring for children and refugees. She has saved roughly 30,000 children and in 2008, she opened a hospital which has treated more than 80,000 patients to date.

World-famous actor, producer and director George Clooney had earlier arrived in Armenia to participate in the ceremony. He presented the award to Barankitse.

As she accepted the award, Barankitse said: “Our values are human values. When you have compassion, dignity and love then nothing can scare you, nothing can stop you – no one can stop love. Not armies, not hate, not persecution, not famine, nothing.”

On behalf of the survivors of the Armenian Genocide and in gratitude to their saviors, the Aurora Prize for Awakening Humanity will be granted annually to an individual whose actions have had an exceptional impact on preserving human life and advancing humanitarian causes.

The Aurora Prize Laureate will be honored with a $100,000 grant. In addition, that individual will have the unique opportunity to continue the cycle of giving by nominating organizations to receive a $1,000,000 award.

Barankitse plans to donate the award to three organizations in order to provide aid and rehabilitation to child refugees and orphans, and fight against child poverty. The organizations are: the Fondation du Grand-Duc et de La Grande-Duchesse du Luxembourg, Fondation Jean-François Peterbroeck (JFP Foundation), and the Fondation Bridderlech Deelen Luxembourg.

Armenian soprano Hasmik Papian and The Washington Post colomnist David Ignatius are hosting the ongoing awards ceremony.

Finalists picked for Aurora Prize in memory of Armenian Genocide

March 15, 2016 By administrator

208159 An international committee deliberating on who would receive a new humanitarian award, created in memory of the Armenian Genocide, has selected four finalists for the annual prize, meant to honor those whose exceptional work to preserve human life in disasters created by humans — like war and ethnic strife — puts them in great peril, the New York Times reports.

The finalists, whose selection will be announced Tuesday, March 15, will attend a ceremony in Yerevan, Armenia, on April 24, where the winner will be announced.

“They’re not celebrities — they’re surprised that some people in the outside world even noticed them,” said Vartan Gregorian, the president of the Carnegie Corporation of New York, a philanthropic foundation. Gregorian, an American scholar of Armenian descent, leads the selection committee for the award, known as the Aurora Prize for Awakening Humanity.

“They’re not in the self-aggrandizing business,” Gregorian said in an interview alongside two other committee members, Gareth Evans, a former foreign minister of Australia, and Leymah Gbowee, a Liberian peace activist and Nobel laureate.

The prize, created by Gregorian and two other prominent philanthropists of Armenian descent, Noubar Afeyan and Ruben Vardanyan, has a twist that distinguishes it from other prizes: The winner receives $100,000 and designates an organization that inspired his or her work to be the beneficiary of $1 million.

The finalists are Marguerite Barankitse, founder of Maison Shalom, which began as a center for orphans during ethnic upheavals that convulsed Burundi, Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo in the 1990s; Dr. Tom Catena, a physician from Amsterdam, N.Y., who founded the Mother of Mercy Hospital in Sudan’s war-ravaged Nuba Mountains eight years ago; Syeda Ghulam Fatima, who runs the Bonded Labour Liberation Front, an organization in Lahore, Pakistan, that aids destitute workers and who was once shot because of her work; and the Rev. Bernard Kinvi, a priest from Togo who runs a Catholic mission in the Central African Republic that has saved many civilians from reprisals in that country’s chronic civil conflict, regardless of their backgrounds.

The finalists were chosen from 200 submitted after the award was announced last April during events for the centennial of the Armenian Genocide, widely considered the first genocide of the 20th century. As many as 1.5 million Armenians were killed as the Ottoman Empire collapsed.

The award founders named it the Aurora Prize after a genocide survivor, Aurora Mardiganian, who witnessed the massacre of relatives and told her story in a book and film.

Gbowee said she hoped the prize would inspire a generation of young people, many of whom she feared had become hardened or intimidated by humanitarian crises around the world the Times said.

“How do we awaken humanity in them? Should we start now?” she said. “My answer is yes. And the whole idea of this prize is the perfect opportunity to begin that conversation.”