The Aurora Prize for Awakening Humanity is a new global award that will be given annually to people who put themselves at risk to enable others to survive and thrive. Recipients will be recognized for the exceptional impact their actions have made to preserving human life or advancing humanitarian causes, despite the challenges that they have overcome.

A grant of U.S. $1 million will be given to the organization that the recipient identifies as the inspiration for his or her actions. In this way, the Aurora Prize will make a tangible difference to the causes that motivate people to risk their health, liberty, reputation, or livelihood by voluntarily carrying out acts that enable others to survive.

The Aurora Prize has been developed as part of 100 LIVES, an international humanitarian project rooted in the events of the Armenian Genocide. This year marks the centenary of the Genocide where an estimated 1.5 million Armenians were killed. In spite of this tragedy, approximately 500,000 survived and found shelter abroad, many with the help of strangers. 100 LIVES is a global effort to pay tribute to and thank the individuals and institutions whose actions saved lives a century ago.