The Vancouver Native Health Society is one of the most successful organizations in the Downtown Eastside but not many people outside the community know it exists.
That’s on the verge of changing after the society – which runs an impressive multi-faceted health care centre in a tiny, unassuming and unfortunately inadequate building on Hastings Street – gained the support of Canadian royalty Wednesday in the form of Margaret Trudeau.
“I feel compassion and no judgment here,” said Trudeau, 61, on a tour of the centre. “I’m proud of this, of people getting medical help like this. There is such a need for it.”
Pierre Trudeau’s former wife was shown around the busy hub of healing by childhood friend Dotty Kanke, co-owner of the Goldfish and Joe Fortes restaurants.
Kanke and her husband, Bud, are putting the bulk of their philanthropy efforts behind the NVHS to help raise its profile and, more importantly, funds to ensure its future.
They’re starting by having staff at their premier restaurants serve lunch at the centre once a month and by renovating its kitchen, which currently sports an oven that literally needs to be hot-wired just to start.
In the long-term, they hope to find a new home for the society, one better equipped to provide the clinical, dental, pharmaceutical and counseling care the centre has been renowned for.
The clinic began operating in 1993 and grew from a fledgling operation to servicing 3,058 active patients.
The society’s Power Outlook Program, offering drop-in counseling, meals and emotional support, also supported 37,871 visits in 2009.
The program’s coordinator and registered nurse, Doreen Littlejohn, said the centre is “bursting at the seams” but still loves every minute of working there after 14 years.
And as impressed as Trudeau was with the centre, its visitors were flabbergasted to see the former first lady walk through the door.
“It was awesome, like the queen came,” said Georgia Brown, who jumped out of her seat during lunch to give Trudeau of warm embrace. “When I was 10, my grandmother had a rooster named Trudeau.”
