#Tumo4aurora: "Everyone decides for himself whether or not to become a hero”

#Tumo4Aurora initiative launched by 100LIVES and Tumo Center for Creative Technologies is at the stage of implementation.

100LIVES representatives got acquainted with the students at Tumo Center for Creative Technologies who are working on creation of Aurora Prize symbols - the statue, slogan and logo.

The students are included in 4 working groups that are headed by Tala Safi, Ruben Malayan, Ayman Hassan and Ara Aslanyan.

Young people included in that groups told Mediamax about the work environment, their vision of Aurora Prize and about 100LIVES’s long term goal of making Yerevan international humanitarian capital.

Liana Harutyunyan, 16
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“Every person decides for himself whether or not to become a hero”

I learned about Aurora Prize after the launch of the program and started reading about Aurora. The working process is very pleasing in our team: it’s friendly and warm. We are still brainstorming and the environment helps to have a flow of new ideas. Besides, we are trying to work on making our ideas more tangible. We are trying to draw sketches and imagine the size of the prize, the materials we will use to make it, etc.

Humanism and the fact that someone can help another risking his/her life are rare occasions. People who are capable of such kind of acts deserve to be called heroes. One of the hardest things is to put aside the “I” and think like “We”. I’m grateful to those people who had been heroes for my today. We wouldn’t have been here without them.

We have a story connected with the Genocide in my family as well. My grandmother told me that her grandfather got based in Sisian having been a Mush refugee.

I wholeheartedly want to believe that Yerevan will become a humanitarian capital one day. Even if it happens 10 years later, I will be happy and proud for living here.

Astghik Zeynalyan, 16
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“Be kind to people”

I learned about Aurora Prize in Tumo, when the program was presented. We didn’t start our team work from theme research: we started sketching, destroying some things and create new ones. We understood that we can create a beautiful thing from destroying. Now, we try to imagine what the prize will be like and what ideas we can invest in them.

If other organizations will support the goal to make Yerevan humanitarian capital, we will succeed in that.

Emil Ter- Avetiqyants, 15
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“Let’s help each other”

We are now working on the sketches in the group and trying to think more deeply on the concept.

We want to create original ideas. Soon, everything will have a visualization.

Aurora is an international humanitarian prize and I will try to create different solutions.

I appreciate the idea that a person does a good deed without expectations and being promised something. How can you not be grateful to such people?

Someday Yerevan may become a humanitarian capital if we work harder on ourselves.

Meri Karapetyan, 18
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“A life for lives”

We are still at a stage of research in the team, trying to have a deeper understanding of the tasks. Before taking part in this initiative I only knew that Aurora Prize is devoted to the memory of victims of the Armenian Genocide. Now, I understand that we also have a small contribution in the prize and I’m proud to take part in an initiative that has a universal character.

I definitely believe that Yerevan can become a humanitarian capital, as we have a rich history and were able to preserve our identity with the help of it and can talk about a crime committed 100 years ago.

Mariam Manoyan
Photos by Mariam Loretsyan