As a retired elementary school principal, overcoming the loss of her eldest son to leukemia, Sandra Harper volunteered to assist the Africa Canadian Continuing Education Society (A.C.C.E.S.), a British Columbia-based non-governmental organization that funds education scholarships and literacy centers in Kakamenga, Kenya. After her six months in Kakamega, a poor community with high unemployment in the Western Province of Kenya, where only forty-two percent of children attend primary school, Harper wrote Inside Kenya - Creating Tomorrow (Hawthorne, 2004), a collection of twelve portraits of Kenyans she met and admired. Specifically these twelve Kenyans, having been given the opportunity to attend post-secondary education in Canada, were back in Kenya, educating others. All proceeds from her independently published book go to an A.C.C.E.S. Scholarship Fund.

As a teacher and principal, Sandra Harper published numerous articles, consulted on an award-winning textbook and edited two journals. Her doctorate research focused on how people change when required to adapt to something new. After 2000, Harper's focus was travel writing, consulting, professional speaking and volunteering. Her first travel memoir focused on Spanish and Muslim cultures in Morocco, Tunisia and Spain. Her self-published novel Not Until Now looks at the life and two main loves of pioneer B.C. architect Francis Rattenbury.

BOOKS:

Not Until Now (Hawthorne, 2008). Fiction.

Inside Kenya - Creating Tomorrow: Stories of Twelve Extraordinary Kenya Lives (Vancouver: Hawthorne Publishing, 2005)

[Hawthorne Publishing, 6016 Larch St., Vancouver, BC V6M 4E4]

A Healing Journey In Morocco, Tunisia And Spain (Vancouver: Hawthorne Publishing, 2004)

[BCBW 2008] "Travel" "Fiction"