Rolling Stone : The Girl Who Tried to Save the World

Rolling Stone :: "Humanitarian-aid work is a passion, not a career path. Ruzicka approached the work with an almost manic dedication. Unable to sleep, she'd be up at dawn and awake at 3 or 4 a.m. Her Day-Timer was filled with 'to do' lists, hundreds of contact names and fund-raising goals -- as well as personal buck-up notes, some almost Bridget Jones-like in content (she kept a running tally of the number of cigarettes she smoked per day). Still on a shoestring budget, she bounced from friend to friend, many of whom she'd met in Afghanistan, crashing on their couches at the Hamra or in their spare rooms. Pamela Hess, a reporter for UPI who'd met Ruzicka in Kabul in 2002, bumped into her while swimming in the Hamra pool. 'She'd gone from anti-war, almost radical, to a woman who could deal with the U.S. military as a partner in her work,' she says. 'I was impressed at how much she had matured in the intervening year.'

On August 19th, 2003, the United Nations headquarters in Baghdad was hit in a massive suicide attack, signifying a dramatic shift in the war. Westerners -- even those occupying positions of neutrality -- were now targets. By the end of the year, most of the Western aid workers in Iraq had pulled out. Ruzicka decided to stay. In the breezy, upbeat notes she'd post to CIVIC's Web site, she would often begin with a chronicle of Iraq's escalating danger but conclude with detailed accounts of the week's work with victims. 'Their tragedies are my responsibilities,' she wrote.

But by April 2004, Iraq had become increasingly dangerous for Americans. As the mortar attacks and suicide bombs grew in frequency, those who remained rarely left their fortified compounds. Ruzicka was warned, most likely by an Iraqi friend, to get out of Iraq for a while. Reluctantly, she agreed, posting a note to her Web site on April 8th declaring her decision to return to Washington 'and try to make a home...sort of.' But a few weeks later she was back in Iraq. 'I didn't want the hard work we'd put into motion to stall,' she wrote in her journal. During the next two months, she jetted in and out of Baghdad, ignoring warnings that the situation had become too risky. 'Just think of all the work you will be able to do when the situation is better because you were not killed by a bomb,' one friend urged."