This spring marks 25 years since Miriam Harder and Deirdre Nunan (’00) were students at RJC.
Harder, who is coming up on 10 years with Canadian Foodgrains Bank, and Nunan who has spent the past decade as an orthopaedic surgeon working with international NGOs, were friends at RJC but only recently got back in touch when they learned they were working in “parallel worlds,” said Harder.
In her work as a senior program officer, Harder manages projects with different CFGB member organizations who support local partner organizations in countries around the world. Since 2024, she has worked with MCC’s Palestinian partner organization Al-Najd Development Forum, and Development and Peace Caritas Canada’s partner Catholic Relief Services to coordinate several distributions of food aid in Gaza.
“I’m very motivated by local partners who tirelessly continue to do what they can given their situation,” Harder said. “They are repeatedly displaced, living in tents themselves and as affected as the people that they’re assisting. It’s a tiny, tangible way of having a positive impact. Ultimately an end to this crisis is a political solution—we’re not solving this—but it’s about helping people get from one day to the next until hopefully there’s a ceasefire.”
In mid-April, Nunan returned from a fifth trip to Gaza where she worked alongsidee Palestinian physicians reconstructing limbs for patients wounded by air strikes, tank fire and gunshots.
“Despite having done this for a long-time, I have never seen such high numbers of such severely wounded people as I did that last two months,” she said.
When Nunan comes back to her home base in Lanigan, Sask., she tries to plug into the work of local and national organizations advocating for peace in Palestine. She finds it difficult to come back to a country where some people aren’t aware of the connections Canada has to the conflict.
“Canada manufactures arms propellants that we sell to the U.S. that are sold to Israel, which are used in the weaponry injuring the patients I was treating,” she said. “I think it implicates us practically as well as morally.”
When asked about how RJC impacted them on their journeys towards working in international aid, both Harder and Nunan mentioned the opportunities to volunteer and get involved in the community that RJC provided to them. They both helped lead the Sit and Be Fit program at the local care home and were involved in theatre and choir.
Nunan said that RJC offering these types of opportunities gave her the confidence she needed to keep pursuing opportunities to serve as an adult. “RJC created a stepping stone for me,” she said, “towards making my own decisions that prioritized civicmindedness in my life.”
Harder remembers travelling as an RJC student to Winnipeg’s North End during the school’s Alternative Learning & Service Opportunities week. She worked with organizations in the neighbourhood. “I saw the value in the work of local organizations responding in their own communities,” Harder said.
The women connected again last October when Nunan heard about a presentation Harder was giving on responding to the conflict in Gaza. The women’s parents have also connected at various peace-and-justice initiatives in Saskatoon. When the women caught up, Nunan suggested they reach out to RJC as alumni to share about their work. On May 1, the pair met with Grade 10 students at RJC to share their experiences.
“Miriam and I hadn’t spoken since high school, but now we have more things in common than we used to,” said Nunan. “We talked about reaching out to RJC to share and bring things a little bit full circle.”
Written by Katie Doke Sawatzky
Photos: Deirdre Nunan (’00) & Nunan (seated left) and Palestinian colleagues operate on a nine year old girl with injuries from an Israeli airstrike, while fifth-year medical students look on. (October 2024) Source: Deirdre Nunan
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