VANDU 25 Year Anniversary Fund
Donation protected
The Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users celebrates 25 years of democratically-led drug user organizing since 1997
Organizing on the stolen and unsurrendered territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and Sel̓íl̓witulh (Tsleil-Waututh) peoples, the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users (VANDU) has been a leading force in the drug user liberation movement on Turtle Island and across the world.
Amidst government inaction during the 90's HIV and overdose crisis, drug users in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside banded together and opened an unsanctioned supervised safe injection room in 1996. Incorporating as VANDU the following year, the organization lead the movement to establish – and later defend – Insite, the first legal overdose prevention site on Turtle Island. Alongside its active tradition of civil disobedience, VANDU continues to work with institutional allies from around the world to produce groundbreaking research in the growing field of harm reduction.
Today, VANDU continues to operate a peer-run supervised injection room seven days a week. Unique amongst overdose prevention sites, VANDU is a democratic union governed and operated by current and former drug users. With the mandate of the organization's 3,000+ members, the VANDU Board of Directors initiates campaigns taking on urgent issues faced by the Downtown Eastside community: housing, disability rights, criminalization, and police brutality.
To commemorate VANDU's history and continuing tradition of democratic poor peoples' organizing, we are asking our supporters to donate $25 for our 25th anniversary. Your donations will help sustain VANDU's ongoing campaigns, daily activities, and member-led projects, including:
- The VANDU Art Table, which provides Downtown Eastside residents low-barrier and stipended art therapy to express grief and resilience as survivors of the drug war;
- Stipends for weekly member-led education meetings, convened by VANDU and our sister societies – the Western Aboriginal Harm Reduction Society (WAHRS) and the BC Association of People on Opiate Maintenance (BCAPOM). Donations have been critical to the creation of pilot programs by and for our membership, like the Eastside Illicit Drinkers Group for Education (EIDGE), Dedicated Revolutionaries Urge Good Safe Supply (DRUGSS), and the VANDU Street Group;
- VANDU’s 25 Years Committee, which has been working to assemble our documentary archives and oral history into an exhibition, website, and book project that will celebrate the first quarter decade of our movement;
- VANDU's continued leadership in poor peoples' struggles alongside allied organizations in the Downtown Eastside, including the Our Homes Can't Wait Coalition (OHCW) and the #StopTheSweeps Coalition.
A coordinated and nationwide campaign to delegitimize harm reduction threatens the lives of drug users everywhere. It is more important than ever that drug users are empowered to lead the creation of programs and policies designed to serve them. Your support will help ensure that VANDU can continue the fight for drug users and all marginalized communities to survive and lead healthy, productive lives.
NOTHING ABOUT US AGAINST US!
Organizer
VAN DU
Organizer
Vancouver, BC