On Sunday, December 1, the King’s Academy community was privileged to welcome Dr. Fozia Alvi to its school assembly. An indefatigable humanitarian, Dr. Alvi is an American-trained physician based in Calgary, Alberta and is a renowned advocate and speaker on global health issues. In 2019, Dr. Alvi received the CAMSS (Calgary and Area Medical Staff Society) Advocacy Award and was nominated for a Nobel Prize. Through her foundation Humanity Auxilium, she currently directs medical relief missions around the world. In February of this year, she traveled to Gaza where she led teams of doctors and health care professionals as they provided medical care, training, and supplies as the ongoing tragedy escalated.

In her talk, entitled “Healing Gaza,” Dr. Alvi recounted how her work in Bangladesh in 2017 set her life on its present course. Working with the thousands of Rohingya refugees in what was the largest tent city in the world, she encountered suffering on a scale that she had only imagined.

She then vowed, “I’m going to raise my voice!” and she devoted herself to providing relief — physicians, medicine, medical and educational supplies-to refugees in China, Syria, Yemen — going wherever and whenever the need arose.

Her account of her work in Gaza, amid what she called “the world’s first televised genocide,” presented her with a nightmare even worse than what she had encountered in Bangladesh.  Leading teams of doctors in hospitals that were bombed, treating thousands of victims of wounds inflicted by all manner of weaponry, and seeing many Palestinians succumb to infection because of a lack of both medicine and sanitation, she bore witness to a horror without remedy or end.

Her closing words, however, spoke of hope and resolve despite all that she has seen and endured: “Never underestimate the power of one person—every effort counts in this world.” And as someone who has done so much good against all odds, she inspired us all to try to make a difference. To do something. This was a memorable encounter with a remarkable woman.