An aid worker, Ruzicka sought to help war-torn countries. “She was the one that persuaded us” to provide $2.5 million for civilian victims in Afghanistan and $10 million for Iraq, says Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont. “Most people in a lifetime would never accomplish what she has.”
She didn’t just raise money, she walked her talk, providing direct aid in a number of countries as the founder of the Campaign for Innocent Victims of Conflict, or “Civic”. She astounded reporters, who used guides and bodyguards, by traveling alone.
That may have been her undoing: when a suicide bomber attacked a convoy that was passing her car in Baghdad, Iraq, she was caught up in the explosion, leaving her burned over 90 percent of her body. She died April 16 from her injuries. She was 28.