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By Tania Martin
HANNAH Kinross wanted to save the world but her journey was tragically cut short last month.
The 22-year-old had planned to tackle the Kokoda Track but her plane crashed in dense jungle on 11 August in Papua New Guinea, killing all on board.
Dandenong’s refugee and Sudanese community has been devastated by the death of their champion.
She gave up hours of her time each week to help the refugees and migrants.
More than 700 people farewelled Hannah last week in a moving ceremony at Mater Christi College in Belgrave.
Her mother Sue said the support shown by all Hannah’s friends and extended family had been wonderful.
“Thank you all for sharing with us Hannah’s life,” she said.
Mrs Kinross regaled the crowd with stories of Hannah as a shy young girl who stopped at nothing to help people.
It was this that led her to South Africa in the gap year between high school and university.
“We were horrified she was going to South Africa but off she went for six months and had a great time mothering the children,” Mrs Kinross said.
“Hannah took the children to the hospital and drove daily into the shanty town where few other white people could go.”
Following the trip, Hannah returned home with a renewed need to find out more about medications and illness so she could be more prepared when she returned to Africa.
In 2006 Hannah started a double degree in Arts Health Science at Deakin University.
She was determined to do something about the health of the world, especially those living in third world countries.
At the end of her first year, Hannah applied for an international student placement and flew to Ecuador in early 2007.
She felt it was the perfect place to study and compare other developing countries the way she had seen in South Africa.
After a brief trip to Thailand for a holiday, Hannah was looking for something to fill her vacation time in 2007, when she discovered the Sudanese Australian Integrated Learning program (SAIL) in Dandenong.
She joined as a tutor and spent every Saturday morning helping at SALE.
Hannah soon became a joint co-ordinator of the program.
SAIL co-ordinator Aiden Stevenson said the loss of Hannah had been enormous for the Sudanese community.
“She fit so much into such a small amount of time,” he said.
“Hannah spent her Saturday evening once taking a four-year-old girl to the doctor with a burn on her leg.”
Earlier this year Hannah also arranged cooking lessons at SAIL for secondary boys to teach them about healthy eating.
“It’s amazing anyone could get a bunch of teenage boys into cooking but Hannah managed to do it,” Mr Stevenson said.
“Hannah did so much and never asked for anything in return.”
Despite studying and volunteering at SAIL, Hannah still had time to help out at the Migrant Information Centre (MIC) in Box Hill and later at the Dandenong branch.
Several weeks after starting at MIC, Hannah applied for a job to teach migrants healthy eating habits.
“She wanted to change the world for the better and she was going to spend her life working to achieve that,” Mrs Kinross said.