“I think that this pandemic crisis is creating new realities. It’s clear that this is not only referring to how long we will stay in quarantine. A unique situation has arisen. On one hand, we are all isolated in our homes, but on the other hand, we are even more connected on a global scale right now,” the co-founder of Aurora, Ruben Vardanyan, responded to a question from the executive director of the Aurora Humanitarian Initiative, Nicola Stanisch about the changes in humanitarian work that have taken place as a result of COVID-19.
Ruben Vardanyan said, “We are following what is taking place in the USA and China, which shows that we are a part of the whole picture despite being in isolation. Online and offline economic and financial behavior will change. But new opportunities will also be creative because the new realities show that we need an ecosystem that will promote transformation. So, not only are good homes and good cars important, but good neighbors and good families are as well. We are returning to our old system of values that we distanced ourselves from over the past 70 years. It is a new reality when we spend more time with our families and neighbors. On one hand, our lives are being transformed, but on the other hand, we are returning to our principal behavior and human values.”
Ruben Vardanyan also said that the main change caused by the coronavirus will be that humanity will be even more connected and we will take on an even bigger responsibility for our lives. “We will return to our thousand-year-old system of values after this technological transformation. We are in a unique time period where extreme elements that no one saw before will become an inseparable part of our reality. I hope that we will learn lessons on how we can overcome this together by sharing our experiences. We will only be able to come up with solutions by learning from one another. It is an illusion that someone will make decisions somewhere and help us. We need to be initiators and create our own futures.”
Hripsime Jebejyan
