Good Deeds: Helping Afghan refugees

Filling an acute need for arriving Afghan refugees

When 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 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

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.