Volume 8 • 2021 • Issue 4

Dr. Heidi Rabie Dr. Heidi Rabie Serving Vulnerable Populations in Alberta In August 1990, 14-year-old Heidi Rabie was on vacation in Montreal with her family when she woke early one morning to the sound of her father taking a sharp intake of breath. He had been sitting up all night watching the live news from Kuwait, where troops were amassing on the border. In the coming days, as the world watched, Saddam Hussein would lead the Iraqi invasion and occupation of Kuwait, an offensive that would unleash Operation Desert Storm and the first Gulf War. B orn in Egypt, Dr. Rabie moved to Kuwait with her family when she was just seven months old. Her father was an engineer in the oil and gas industry. Kuwait was home. It was where she had grown up, gone to school, and made friends. Now, sitting in a hotel room halfway across the world with little more than a suitcase full of clothes, everything was about to change. In the coming days, friends and family back home would pack up their cars and head across the desert to the nearest border. Property would be seized and bank accounts frozen. The Rabie family had a decision to make, and they had to make it quickly: they would not be going back to Kuwait. “Suddenly we had no home, no car, no bank accounts,” says Dr. Rabie. “The minute my father heard of the invasion he ran downstairs and paid the hotel for the next two months. He took out whatever money he could from the bank and sent us on the shopping spree of our lives before the credit cards got cancelled.” Despite the volatility of the situation, there were some positives. Dr. Rabie’s parents had already been scouting out the possibility of a move to Canada, and Heidi’s father had been accepted in the skilled worker category and was admitted to the Ordre des Ingénieurs du Québec. Also, as a child Dr. Rabie had attended international schools in Kuwait and so was fluent in English and had some knowledge of French. By the time Kuwait was liberated in 1991, the family had decided to stay in Canada long term. They settled in Montreal where Dr. Rabie attended Lemoyne d’Iberville High School, a French language school in Longueuil. Four years later, having excelled in Quebec’s Champlain College CEGEP, she transitioned directly to dental school at the University of Montreal. In 1998, less than eight years after the invasion of her homeland, she graduated with a dental degree at age 22. Suddenly we had no home, no car, no bank accounts. The minute my father heard of the invasion he ran downstairs and paid the hotel for the next two months. 26 | 2021 | Issue 4