Marguerite Barankitse, a woman who risked her life to save 30,000 children during Burundi’s civil war, has been awarded the first Aurora Prize for Awakening Humanity.
“Our values are human values,” Barankitse said in her acceptance speech.
The prize, worth one million dollars, will fund scholarships for children in East Africa and assist those wounded in Burundi.
Over 20 years ago, Barankitse turned a Catholic diocese into a refuge for children caught in ethnic violence, regardless of their background.
After the war, she opened a hospital that has treated 80,000 patients from both the Tutsi and Hutu communities.
The Aurora Prize honors those who …
