PHOENIX (AP) - The parents of a Prescott woman who was captured and killed by Islamic State group militants are making a major donation to the nonprofit Doctors Without Borders.
Kayla Mueller’s parents announced Monday that they are donating $120,000 to the organization and dissolving Kayla’s Hands, the charitable foundation they started in their daughter’s name, reported The Arizona Republic (https://bit.ly/2jYto7I).
The Muellers said that the $120,000 they donated will help establish an endowment in Kayla Mueller’s name to support medical and humanitarian aid programs.
“By donating to Doctors Without Borders, we can ensure Kayla’s legacy of healing is continued and that her spirit will remain out in the world. This gesture is a reflection of Kayla’s heart,” her parents wrote in the statement.
Mueller was taken hostage with her boyfriend, Omar Alkhani, in August 2013 after leaving a Doctors Without Borders hospital in Aleppo, Syria, where he had been hired to fix the internet service for the hospital. Alkhani was released after two months, having been beaten.
Mueller’s death was confirmed in February 2015 by U.S. officials.
In the statement, the Muellers said they keep a Doctors Without Borders map that Kayla had kept since she was a college student pinned up on the wall.
“We know Kayla would want every penny to go toward any and every effort that seeks to meet the ever growing demands of this unsettled world, bringing the medical and humanitarian help needed with kindness and goodness, carrying Kayla into the world wherever they go,” the statement read.
Other funds from Kayla’s Hands will be donated to organizations that do the kind of work Kayla Mueller had supported, including Save the Children and the Syrian American Medical Society, and to the Kiwanis Club of Prescott, which built a playground in her name.
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Information from: The Arizona Republic, https://www.azcentral.com
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