As Aiia Maasarwe’s family prepares for her killer’s sentencing hearing, they will also launch something special that will ensure the bubbly student isn’t forgotten.
The father of slain Israeli exchange student Aiia Maasarwe will return to Australia to watch her killer be sentenced — but he will also launch something special in her name.
Saeed Maasarwe will attend the sentencing hearing of Codey Herrmann on October 29 and thank the people of Melbourne for the support his family has received since her shocking murder in January.
Ms Maasarwe, 21, was raped and killed, and parts of her body burnt, on January 16 after got off a tram just after midnight in Bundoora in Melbourne’s north.
Mr Maasarwe will launch the Aiia Maasarwe Memorial Medical Fellowship Program for Project Rozana, an organisation that aims to build better understanding between Israelis and Palestinians through health initiatives.
The Aiia Maasarwe Memorial Medical Fellowship Program will provide financial support to Palestinian physicians training in Israeli hospitals, so they can address the needs of their people.
The inaugural Fellowship will be awarded to Dr Khadra Salami, a senior paediatrician in haematological-oncology.
Dr Salami will undertake a two-year paediatric bone marrow transplantation training program at Hadassah Hospital, Ein Kerem, in Jerusalem.
Read the article by Andrew Koubaridis in the Herald Sun.