VANCOUVER—Several groups in B.C. have teamed up to address the health problems of women in Vancouver’s downtown eastside (DTES), one of Canada’s poorest neighbourhoods. An area rife with drug addiction, violence and prostitution, it is estimated that 30 per cent of DTES’ population, many of whom are women, suffer from HIV infection. On June 15, a women’s only pharmacy, Lu’s, will open its door to this destitute segment of Vancouver’s population.

Social marketing and ad agency NOW Communications was contracted by the Vancouver Women’s Health Collective to produce a marketing campaign, while UBC architecture professor Inge Roecker and her students were in charge of interior design. The new facility will include an examination room, a health information resource centre and a computer centre.

Lu’s hopes to serve women in the area who have problems accessing health care. Marie Della Mattia, one of the partners at NOW, says it had to find effective ways to connect with this audience. She recalls, “We had to make people feel like it had an edge; that it was something different.” Thus far, it has launched the Choose Lu's campaign, a series of postcards that explain the benefits of going to a women’s-only pharmacy. NOW is also planning to start a Post-It initiative by scattering sticky notes that contain the pharmacy’s contact information in Downtown Eastside public washrooms.

Inge Roecker and her students also channeled Lu’s audience in the look of the pharmacy. The team picked cherry blossom, a feminine symbol, as a recurring theme throughout the facility. In fact, the security gate is designed as an enlarged cherry blossom instead of the usual bars. Roecker and her architecture students also used recycled materials such as old test tubes for the lighting.

Much of NOW’s production work and all of UBC’s design efforts were done pro bono. But Della Mattia and Roecker were more than happy to do it. Della Mattia says, “I’m personally a feminist. It was a project close to my heart.”

For more information on Lu’s pharmacy, visit its website at www.womenshealthcollective.ca