Northway Broadway Pharmacist Oumad Khalek, along with Darren Murphy, CEO of Northway Pharmacy, were recognized for “exceptional leadership, commitment, and collaboration” in supporting the disability community as recipients of St Amant’s 2024 “Together Award” on November 20.
Murphy bought the pharmacy in 2008 (the first of 14 he now owns), and jokes that “Oumad came with the store.” He said that it was at Northway that he learned what it means to be a part of a community.
Tania Douglas, Executive Director of St. Amant Foundation said that not only have they organized significant fundraisers on behalf of the agency, but highlighted the flexibility the pharmacy has always demonstrated. Due to concerns during the Covid pandemic, Khalek led an arrangement to provide as drive-by vaccinations for St. Amant clients with mobility restrictions, and created vaccine clinics for St Amant staff.
 It’s been a relationship that has gone two ways, said Northway’s Murphy. When he realized there was much more the pharmacy could do, he pitched a pilot project to St. Amant and the agency right away assembled a team, clinical psychologist, psychiatrist and community residential folks to offer an enhanced clinical services program… that was later rolled out to the whole disability community.  
 Janet Forbes, executive director of Inclusion Winnipeg, said she has rarely seen a business that has been so able to be so inclusive, and that their efforts have been an example to the community. Khalek has also contributed a pharmacist to another new initiative called a Rights Restriction Review Committee, to “ensure the rights of individuals with disabilities are protected and respected.”
 St. Amant CEO Ben Adaman said Northway has a well-earned reputation of working through sometimes complicated funding arrangements, finding safe and effective and affordable medications, offering training, and having a person-centred approach. “They have always found a way to say ‘Yes’,” said Adaman.
“The award is not just for me,” says Khalek.  “It’s for everyone that has been a part of this journey. There are so many people that deserve recognition for the work that we do to support people with developmental disabilities and autism. They have all been role models to me of how to serve others, and its because of others that I am the person I am today.”
 Khalek says the pharmacy has always valued the relationships they’ve built in West Broadway and what it means to be part of a community. After the first time trying to organize a community holiday dinner on their own, they partnered with the West Broadway Community Organization’s Good Food Club. This year’s annual Christmas feast, sponsored by Northway, takes place Dec. 12 at the neighbouring Broadway Neighbourhood Centre (BNC). When he found the BNC was in need of more chairs, Oumad called a local business supplier who said he wanted to offer chairs at cost, and then their head office (in Toronto) offered another 10% off. Now, Oumad says, the centre can hopefully seat the almost 200 community members who attend.
 Khalek’s connections with customers goes well beyond business hours. He said medication administration is often done in the evening, and that emergencies can come up: illness or issues with restricted medications. “As an owner, I’m on the front line, I’m here and available,” he says.
 He also remembers fondly former long-serving pharmacist Floyd Lee who found a creative way to connect to the community. “Floyd was into photography and took a picture with one of our customers and threw it up on the wall. So then another person came in and said why is there a photo of so and so with Floyd? I want a photo too.  It grew into a huge collage of photos,” says Khalek. Now, he’s in the process of deciding how to refresh this proud statement of the community’s local connection to his business.
 Khalek told The Leaf that, although the front of the store where they serve the public is quite small, Northway Broadway has 26 employees, lots of space in the back and has built up relationships with several organizations in and out of the neighbourhood. A partial list includes St. Amant, Horizon Agency, Nine Circles, Klinic, Villa Rosa, Rainbow Resource Centre, and Main Street Project. For many years the pharmacy has quietly run clinical services for addicts, and is now, due to improved medication, able to offer a monthly medication treatment instead of daily treatments that were formerly required. 
Khalek says he will be at the community dinner, volunteering for the first hour or so, and then in the spirit of his commitment to meeting the needs of community, will be heading off to another.