In 1980 Elaine Harvey worked for the International Red Cross in the Cambodian refugee camps immediately after the fall of the brutal Khmer Rouge regime. It was a time when sorrow fell like monsoon rain. “I did not fully understand the impact of 1980 until later in my life. I was not a victim of war, poverty, or starvation, but I was a witness. As a witness, I came to understand that front lines take a toll in our lives. They test how far we will go, how much we will give and how deep we will travel.” In 2007 and 2009 she returned to Cambodia, volunteering in a rural orphanage and city hospice. She met the people on the front lines--the human rights activists, the caregivers, and those who needed care, inspiring her to explore the challenges of service. Her journey was a quest of the heart to meet the new face of Cambodia and honour the one she left behind.

Elaine Harvey is a nurse, a writer, a healing touch practitioner and a traveller. A diverse career and her adventurous spirit have taken her to remote regions of the world with experiences in Asia and Africa marking her world view. She currently resides in Victoria, on the west coast of Canada. Encounters on the Front Line is Elaine's first book of creative non-fiction.

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