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Upon a Star
K YOKO FIERRO
Vancouver nonprofit Wish is facing some of the toughest times in its almost 40-year history. But executive director Mebrat Beyene is helping to find stability for the city’s most vulnerable. by
Nathan Caddell
When Mebrat Beyene talks about how challenging the last couple of years have been, the range of emotions on her face is telling. “It’s difficult to do this work at the best of times,” says the executive director of the Wish Drop-In Centre Society, before breaking into a sardonic chuckle. “Though I don’t really know what those are.” Fair enough. The nonprofit Wish was established 38 years ago with the goal of improving the health, safety and well-being of women involved in Vancouver’s streetbased sex trade. Beyene has been with the organization since 2015, but the most recent years have inarguably been the hardest in her tenure. There have been some highlights, to be sure: the centre was able to open Canada’s first-ever 24/7 emergency shelter for women-identifying sex workers in 2020, and Beyene herself won a YWCA Women of Distinction Award. But mostly, it’s been challenging. The pandemic only exacerbated the trials of the ongoing and unprecedented toxic drug supply, as well as the homelessness and poverty issues that continue to hover over the city. COVID-19 restrictions resulted in lost income for sex workers, which in turn limited their ability to turn down unsafe work. “We saw during COVID what it looks like when multiple levels of government pull out all the stops to respond to a crisis,” Beyene maintains. “Okay, well, the Downtown Eastside has been dealing with multiple crises—where is the pulling out all the stops approach? It feels like we’re putting Band-Aids on massive issues. People need to
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