Tuesday, October 20 2020 16:53

ArmInfo. On October 19, 2020 at 7 pm local time the Aurora Humanitarian Initiative's event of the year, honoring the Aurora Humanitarians and the Initiative's 5th  anniversary, took place in New York City. 

As the press service of the Initiative reports, the organizers noted  that when they had begun planning the event, nobody could have  imagined that a war, but they had decided not to cancel or postpone  the plans as it is in times of adversity that the voice of the Aurora  Prize for Awakening Humanity should be heard the loudest.

The event, focused on the philosophy of Gratitude in Action, was  broadcast live from The New York Public Library and featured Aurora  Humanitarian Initiative Co-Founder, member of the Aurora Prize  Selection Committee and President of the Carnegie Corporation of New  York, Vartan Gregorian, as well as the evening's hosts, well-known  American journalists Judy Woodruff (PBS) and David Ignatius (The  Washington Post).

At the same time the rest of the participants, including Aurora  Co-Founders Noubar Afeyan and Ruben Vardanyan, Chair and members of  the esteemed Aurora Prize Selection Committee, Aurora Laureates and  famous representatives of cultural establishment like George Clooney,  Yo-Yo Ma and Wynton Marsalis, as well as more than 500 invitees,  joined the event remotely. However, from the very first minutes of  the event and throughout its course (for 1h 40m) the risk of  disruption remained high due to series of cyber attacks and an influx  of thousands of bots trying to block the broadcast and spreading fake  URLs of the broadcast and ultranationalist anti-Armenian slurs in the  social media.  

Several substantial grants, presented by the Aurora Humanitarian  Initiative in 2020, were announced during the "Gratitude in Action"  event, including $1 million to who help women and children in  Somalia; $1 million from the Co-Founders personally to to cover  urgent humanitarian needs in Nagorno-Karabakh; $100,000 to the  Elmhurst Hospital in Queens.

It should be noted as well that this year, the global Aurora  Humanitarian Initiative has also transferred $200,000 to support  those, $140,000 to the Mother of Mercy Hospital in Nuba Mountains,  Sudan, and $120,000 to the Ministry of Health of the Republic of  Armenia to help it fight against the pandemic of COVID-19.

The Aurora Humanitarian Initiative was founded on behalf of the  survivors of the Armenian Genocide and in gratitude to their saviors.  The Aurora Prize for Awakening Humanity is awarded annually to  modern-day heroes who put themselves at risk to save others. You can  watch the full-length version of the "Gratitude in Action" event by  following this link.