Chelsea Clinton has referred to the Ayrora Prize.
“Great to hear that Syeda Ghulam Fatima, 2015 Clinton Global Citizen Award winner, is now an ‪Aurora Prize finalist,” Clinton wrote in a Facebook post.
Great to hear that Syeda Ghulam Fatima, 2015 Clinton Global Citizen Award winner, is now an #AuroraPrize finalist! http://bit.ly/1ST1QiV
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Syeda Ghulam Fatima is one of the four contenders for the first ever Aurora Prize for Awakening Humanity. Last year she was honored with the Clinton Global Citizen award in New York.
She has worked tirelessly to eradicate bonded labor, one of the last remaining forms of modern slavery. Fatima is the general secretary of the Bonded Labour Liberation Front Pakistan (BLLF), which has liberated thousands of Pakistani workers, including approximately 21,000 children, who were forced to work for brick kiln owners in order to repay debts. The interest rates are too high for workers to pay off, trapping the workers in forced labor and poor—often brutal—conditions. Fatima has survived attempts on her life and repeated beatings during the course of her activism.
Four finalists have been announced for the Aurora Prize: Marguerite Barankitse, from Maison Shalom and REMA Hospital in Burundi; Dr. Tom Catena, from Mother of Mercy Hospital in the Nuba Mountains of Sudan; Syeda Ghulam Fatima, the General Secretary of the Bonded Labor Liberation Front in Pakistan; and Father Bernard Kinvi, a Catholic priest in Bossemptele in the Central African Republic.
The co-founders of 100 LIVES and the Aurora Prize Selection committee – co-chaired by Nobel Laureate Elie Wiesel and Academy Award-winning actor and humanitarian George Clooney – will honor the Aurora Prize finalists for their exceptional acts of humanity with a weekend of events from April 22 through April 24, 2016.
On behalf of the survivors of the Armenian Genocide, and in gratitude to their saviors, the Aurora Prize celebrates the strength of the human spirit that compels action is the face of adversity.
Recipients will be recognized for the exceptional impact their actions have made on preserving human life and advancing humanitarian causes. On behalf of the survivors of the Armenian Genocide and in gratitude to their saviors, an Aurora Prize Laureate will be honored each year with a US$100,000 grant as well as the unique opportunity to continue the cycle of giving by nominating an organization which inspired their work for a US$1,000,000 award.
The Aurora Prize will be awarded annually on April 24 of each year in Yerevan, Armenia.