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Sarah Harvey, Dr. Eamonn McKee, Ambassador of Ireland to Canada, and journalist Sally Armstrong.Handout

The organizer: Sarah Harvey

The pitch: Helping raise more than $50,000

The spouses of most diplomats tend to spend a few years in a country and then move on, leaving nothing behind. That’s not how Sarah Harvey will end her time in Canada.

Ms. Harvey is the wife of New Zealand’s High Commissioner and last summer she became involved with helping the Afghan-Canadian community support refugees who were fleeing Afghanistan as the Taliban took over. “I got to know the wife of the Afghan ambassador,” Ms. Harvey recalled from her home in Ottawa. “I witnessed the collapse of Afghanistan with her and with that family. That’s got major implications when you are representing your country and your country is collapsing behind you.”

She freed up space in the basement of the High Commission to store humanitarian aid and helped gather donations. Once the immediate crisis subsided, Ms. Harvey wanted to stay involved. Working with volunteers from the Heads of Mission Spousal Association, which she chairs, Ms. Harvey approached Carleton University and the University of Ottawa about setting up scholarships for Afghan refugee women.

The universities agreed and offered matching funds. Ms. Harvey then reached out to the Canadian Federation of University Women-Ottawa, which agreed to work on a fundraising event.

This month the group held the HOPE Gala for Refugee Women in Ottawa and raised more than $50,000, enough to provide an annual scholarship worth $2,000 to two undergraduate students. The scholarships are open to any woman who comes to Canada as a refugee. Ms. Harvey and the other volunteers are also aiming to raise enough to fund a separate, one-off scholarship for a female Afghan refugee this fall.

Ms. Harvey has been in Canada for two years and she’ll head to another post in 2024, but she’s leaving a lasting legacy. “My attitude to diplomacy is it’s all about connection and engagement,” she said. “You can sit back and watch what’s going on in the country you’ve been posted to and make wise or unwise comments about what you think is going on. But really it’s far more productive and helpful for everybody if you roll your sleeves up and get involved.”

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