Diplomat & International Canada - Fall 2021

Page 29

GOOD DEEDS |DI PLOM AT I CA

Filling an acute need for arriving Afghan refugees

ULLE BAUM

W

hen Sarah Harvey heard that Afghan refugees, fleeing the now Taliban-run state, were coming to Canada, her mind immediately turned to her friend Arian Ahmadi. Harvey is the head of the Heads of Mission Spouses Association (HOMSA) and Ahmadi is a member of its steering committee and wife of Afghan Ambassador Hassan Soroosh. “We’ve all been very conscious of what life is like for her now,” Harvey says of Ahmadi, who was born in Canada to Afghan parents. “She’s been in contact with the local Afghan community and discovered they need all kinds of supplies because the refugees are arriving.” Harvey knew that in addition to collecting used clothing for refugees arriving just as Canadian winter nears, the volunteers would need a place to store the goods. “We have a very large basement and I offered it to them,” Harvey says. “They said ‘yes, please.’ My basement looks like a department store and I have the real pleasure of working with 12 local Afghan Canadians, some of whom were refugees themselves. They come to my house to sort and then to distribute to the families in the hotels.” Harvey figured it was a simple way she could help out. As she puts it: “It’s not everyone who lives in a large residence.” Asked if she had to go through any official New Zealand channels to get the okay to offer the space, she said “the official channel is my husband — he said yes.” As a founding member of the Afghan Canadian Support Network, Ahmadi was pleased to be able to link the Ottawa Afghan community with the city’s diplomatic corps — especially when people such as Harvey stepped up to help. Harvey doesn’t usually work in the basement alongside the volunteers because they tend to speak an Afghan languate among themselves and she doesn’t want to slow them down by requiring them to speak English. Instead she supports them in other ways. For example, one night in early October, knowing they were coming to her home straight from their day jobs, she asked them to let her feed them dinner. “I offered to prepare a meal so they can be more efficient,” she says. “I’m just a support. It’s a privilege to get to eat with diplomat and international canada

The Afghan-Canadian Support Network is working towards a better future for our newcomers through resettlement programs. From left to right (front row): Zahira Sarwar, Allaha Balouch, Tamana Shekib and Malala Mehraban. Back row from left, Bassel Kaddoura, Mina Nazir, Barin Habibi and Naheed Housany.

Sarah Harvey, centre, and her friend, Sue Carlton, right, prepared a meal for the members of the Afghan-Canadian Support Network, who are working in the basement of the residence she shares with her husband, New Zealand High Commissioner Martin Harvey, left.

them and hear their stories.” One woman, for example, arrived in Sherbrooke, Que., as a refugee and now has the distinction of speaking Farsi, English and French. “She’s now a social worker and is very adept at co-ordinating this group,” Harvey says. The Afghan Canadian Support Network needs warm winter clothing and,

most acutely, winter coats to fit men and teenage boys. It is also looking for space such as rental properties and a warehouse to store donated goods until they can be handed out. Donors with questions can send an email to acsn.ottawa@gmail.com or Afghan Canadian Support Network on Instagram. D 27


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Articles inside

Photo finish: The greater snow goose

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pages 103-104

DIPLOMATIC LISTINGS

20min
pages 96-99

Envoy's Album: Photos from diplomatic events

5min
pages 92-95

Africa’s schisms and what can be done

8min
pages 60-61

Books on diplomacy, sovereignty and pandemics

19min
pages 72-77

What Canada must do vis-à-vis China

11min
pages 62-65

Art: What's in store for Ottawa galleries this autumn and winter

9min
pages 78-82

CODE promises every girl the right to read

14min
pages 68-71

Food: Three recipes for entertaining or treating yourself

8min
pages 83-85

Wine: Why corks may or may not matter

3min
pages 90-91

Residential school revelations and the hard search for truth

7min
pages 66-67

Afghanistan: The end of a war and a perilous future

27min
pages 52-59

Trade: The Pacific Alliance celebrates 10 years of co-operation

6min
pages 34-35

Trade Winds with Brazil, Estonia and Mongolia

12min
pages 30-33

Good Deeds: Helping Afghan refugees

3min
page 29

Questions Asked with the WHO’s Bruce Aylward

23min
pages 22-27

Fen Hampson on upcoming global summits

12min
pages 18-21

Diplomatic Agenda: UAE's sustainability goals

8min
pages 36-37

Notes from the Field: Community Forests International’s work

3min
page 28
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