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The Aurora Humanitarian Initiative has announced the end of the nomination period for the prestigious Aurora Prize for Awakening Humanity, IDeA Foundation reports.

Nominations were officially opened in June at the announcement of the third Aurora Prize Laureate, Rohingya rights activist Mr. Kyaw Hla Aung, and since then a total of 719 submissions have been received, featuring an unprecedented 523 unique candidates.  The nominations for the fourth award hailed from six continents and a total of 72 countries, including the United States, Russia, Germany, Spain, Syria, South Africa, Armenia and Singapore.

Noubar Afeyan, Co-Founder of the Aurora Humanitarian Initiative and the Aurora Prize said: “The nominations process reinforces our faith in humanity.  Just as our survival – during the Armenian Genocide -- depended on the goodness of strangers, these nominees are ordinary people who demonstrate the same basic humanity and place their lives at risk to protect others. Through the Aurora Prize, we are able to express our gratitude to them by supporting their work and helping them in their work to save others.”

The 2019 Aurora Humanitarians (finalists) will be announced on April 24, 2019 following the deliberations of the Selection Committee.  This will be followed by a weekend of events later in the year in Yerevan, where Armenia will honour the humanitarians and announce the fourth laureate, and engage humanitarians in meaningful dialogues on the world’s most pressing issues.

Denis Mukwege, founder of and medical director at Panzi Hospital, attends a celebration on the hospital campus with survivors and patients. Photo credit: Torleif Svensson/Getty Images