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Three Armenian doctors set out for Sudan to temporarily substitute for Dr. Tom Catena and continue his humanitarian work, the official website of Aurora Prize reports.

The website notes that reaching the Nuba Mountains in the south of Sudan is not easy. The suffering of the local population seems endless. Dr. Tom Catena has witnessed it all. The sole surgeon in the local Mother of Mercy hospital that serves the entire region, this devout American Catholic came to Sudan in the peaceful years preceding the war, and then refused to leave the people once the civil war broke out in 2011.

Dr. Tom Catena leaves the Nuba Mountains only in utter necessity. But this month, Dr. Catena will fly to Armenia in order to attend the Aurora Prize weekend of events and the Award Ceremony in Yerevan. He was nominated last year as well. But in 2016, he didn’t attend the ceremony. He couldn’t. This year, however, the people of the Nuba Mountains will be able to rely on three Armenian doctors who will be substituting for him, and, like him, will save lives.

Lieutenant Colonel Gevorg Voskanyan, Major Hayk Hovhannisyan and Armine Barkhudaryan –did now waver for a second when told that they are urgently needed in a remote corner of the world.

Lieutenant Colonel Gevorg Voskanyan is the chief surgeon at the Central Clinical Military Hospital of Armenia, who has served 23 years as a military doctor.

Major Hayk Hovhannisyan is the Deputy Chief of the Surgery Unit at the Central Clinical Military Hospital of Armenia’s Defense Ministry.

Armine Barkhudaryan is on a humanitarian mission in the hospital of Malindi, Kenya, where she is much needed. She will join her colleagues in Sudan.

The doctors left for Sudan at the request of the Aurora Humanitarian Initiative in order to make possible the visit of the 2017 Aurora Prize Finalist Tom Catena to Yerevan, Armenia. The Initiative has undertaken all organizational, financial and insurance obligations associated with the visit of the doctors.

The finalists for the 2017 Aurora Prize are Fartuun Adan and Ilwad Elman, Jamila Afghani, Dr. Tom Catena, Muhammad Darwish, Dr. Denis Mukwege.  The finalists will be honored at the Aurora Prize Ceremony in Yerevan, Armenia on May 28, 2017 when one will be chosen as the 2017 Aurora Prize Laureate.

The Aurora Prize Laureate will receive a grant of US$100,000 to support the continuation of their work, as well as a US$1,000,000 award, which will give them the unique ability to continue the cycle of giving by supporting organizations that have inspired their work.