The Queen: Dr Sarah Kambites 102122

 

Good mentors are one of the more powerful human connections we experience in life. ‘The Queen’ holds a place within the circle of sisterhood I surround myself with so that I am always looking up and holding myself to a higher tenet. One of the first times I went for dinner at Sarah’s in Ottawa over a decade ago now, I got to try some traditional Ugandan cuisine (the way to my heart) and spy a 1980 copy of National Geographic with Sarah depicted in a striking image of her holding her son, John, in a boat on Lake Victoria. The story was about her returning to her homeland and giving back to her community through raising a primary school (where 30 years later, 200 children continue to receive quality education each year), a medical clinic and a vocational training centre. This is the heart of what international development work is all about.

 “I am a child of Lake Victoria,” she said, when I asked where she would feel comfortable making this portrait, “I would like to be photographed near water.” 

For so many of us who have been privileged to work with her over the years, or better yet befriend her, we are all bound together by the quiet cultivation we acquired through her guidance, and each of us are better for it. I have learned more about the development sector, strong ethics and leadership from her than I did during my entire Master’s degree and in many roles since. She is an expert in her field and an empathy-based leader/educator; measuring the impact would be impossible. 

Sarah nicknamed herself ‘The Queen’ years ago, and for those of us who love her, we uphold this name, not to tease her, but I think because we generally acknowledge the regal elegance and diplomacy she exudes. She beams, her energy wraps you in a big hug. As she approaches her 70th year next spring, she threatens to retire, but even if she does, her reach will continue to traverse the globe through the handiwork of so many of us she has nurtured along the way.