Asarsi Getu

Asarsi Getu or Asarsi Getu-Sahla-Gramai (born 1958) is an Israeli nurse of Beta Israel origin, who in the mid-1980s served as a nurse for the Red Cross refugee camps in Sudan. She saved the lives of many patients, secretly giving medicines to those who could not purchase them, and was responsible for distributing aid funds Ethiopian Jewish refugees fleeing Ethiopia on their way to Israel.

Early years Asarsi was born in the village of Geina in the province of Gondar in 1958, After four years of schooling in the village, Asarsi refused to marry; she persuaded her parents to allow her instead to complete 12 years of schooling in the city of Azezo. She continued her studies at the School of Nursing in Debre Tabor.

Career After completing her training as a nurse in 1983, the authorities decided to send her to work on the Asmara front, where battles were fought between the Eritrean rebels and the army, as part of the Ethiopian Civil War. Many Ethiopian Jews were killed in refugee camps in Sudan while waiting to immigrate to Israel. Asarsi appealed to the Red Cross to allow her volunteer for the organization. After proving her professional skills, she was accepted as a full-time Red Cross nurse. At Asarsi’s request, she was also assigned to work in the refugee camp clinic's pharmacy, a position that allowed her to help Jews who were unable to purchase the medicines they needed. Risking her life, she secretly gave patients free medicine, and sometimes bought medicines for them out of her own pocket money. Fearing that she would be abducted by local Sudanese and forced to marry, Asarsi decided to marry a Jewish bachelor, whom she had known before she arrived at the camp. Following her meeting with Henry Gould, one of the founders of the NGO Canadian Physicians for Aid and Relief (CPAR), and later worked as a secretary. She helped raise funds, from the local Jewish community, for Ethiopian Jewry. During this time, she raised her daughter by herself, as a single parent, after divorcing her husband. Through a five-year effort, she managed to bring her mother from Ethiopia to Canada; her mother later immigrated to Israel. With the help of the Mossad, her two brothers were released from Ethiopian prison, immigrated to Israel, and were recognized by Israel as Prisoners of Zion. About a year later, in 1992, Asarsi immigrated to Israel with her daughter. In Israel, she met Baruch Garmai, whom she had known in Ethiopia. The two are married and live in Jerusalem. Asarsi continues to work as a nurse, while Garmai served as a security guard at the Knesset until his retirement.