Life-giving medical training to remember a tragic death

Project Rozana has created two new fellowships for Palestinian doctors to train in Israel.

In a region where tragedy, killing and grief often lead to more tragedy killing and grief, something exceptional happened this month.

Aiia Maasarwe, a young Palestinian-Israeli woman murdered in Melbourne in January 2019, was honoured with the awarding of two fellowships for Palestinian physicians to train in Israeli hospitals.

 The Aiia Maasarwe Memorial Medical Fellowship Program (AMMMFP) is an initiative of Project Rozana, an international NGO headquartered in Melbourne. Its purpose is to build relationships between Israelis and Palestinians through health.

Dr Ruba Rizik, of the Al Makassed Hospital in East Jerusalem, will go to Sheba Hospital in Tel Aviv to train in paediatric intensive care, a specialty desperately needed in the Palestinian territories.

There are only 10 paediatric intensive care beds in the West Bank and Gaza, serving a population of about two million children under age 15.

Rizik, from East Jerusalem said, “If someone told me during my residence program that I would one day be in a followship for paediatric ICU I wouldn’t have believed them. It’s a very difficult field to work in. It’s like stepping into a minefield. You need to be awake 24/7 and make quick decisions that can affect your patient’s life.

“The most rewarding part is when you have a very critical patient that you have been working on day and night and you have the ability to save his life, and send him back to his family, it’s the most beautiful feeling you will have in your life.”

Rizik said it was difficult for a Palestinian to study in an Israeli hospital without external funding. “Project Rozana have helped me realize my goal by starting a fellowship in Sheba, and also helped me learn Hebrew by enrolling me in classes that can enable me to do this fellowship.”

Dr Ahmad Shaheen, of the Al Ahli Hospital in Hebron, will train in paediatric ophthalmology at Ichilov Hospital, also in Tel Aviv.

He said he had loved his specialty of ophthalmology since a rotation in medical school, but there were few options for doctors to specialise in Hebron.

 “The eyes are the windows of the body. The world class mentors I will meet in Tel Aviv, especially in surgery, will be good for the population I will serve in Al Ahli hospital. I am grateful to Project Rozana that has enabled me to complete this fellowship at Ichilov.”

Aiia Maasarwe was killed in a random attack on January 16, 2019, while on a student exchange at La Trobe University. Maasarwe was talking with her sister Ruba on the phone when Codey Herrmann struck her with a pipe multiple times.

The case made headlines around the world. Hermann was sentenced to 36 years jail, with 30 years without parole, by the Victorian Supreme Court in October 2019.

Following the murder, her family expressed their strong support for the establishment of a fellowship in her name, saying that they want her memory and legacy to spread love and hope.

Aiia’s father, Saeed, who visited Australia after his daughter’s death, said: “I believe that one of the best ways to honour Aiia is to make her legacy a positive impact in the world.  Aiia would have been inspired by Project Rozana and its commitment to ensure that Palestinians living in the West Bank and Gaza receive the same level of healthcare that we do in Israel. Project Rozana shows that Israelis and Palestinians can live and work together in harmony, and that is also something that was important for Aiia.”