2020 - SIM Galmi Hospital

Dear friends, thank you for taking time to opening up this blog. Welcome to any new viewers and welcome back for those who have been following my blog for a while. Below, I will share a bit about the work I have been doing for Galmi Hospital this past year.

Located on the edge of the Sahara Desert, SIM’s Galmi Hospital (Galmi) has been providing compassionate medical care in Jesus' name since the 1950’s. We are currently working on phase 4 of the development plan. As Galmi's medical, training, and discipleship ministries have grown, it is now a referral center for central Niger and surrounding countries. Here is a photo from the 1960's:

And one from 2020:

From August 2020, I worked remotely from EMI Canada with local SIM Galmi leaders and an EMI engineer on site during the Fall of 2020 (his is a long term partnership as EMI's phase 1 of this project started in 2008). Together, we conducted interviews from the local and missionary doctors and nurses to gather information for a future EMI team and update the masterplan. The reason to interview the staff is to better understand the needs and desires of each department, so that we can better plan their spaces in the future. Below is an image of the existing HIV consulting room in the outpatient department which is also used to keep some files:

EMI is a non-profit Christian development organization whose mission is to mobilize volunteer design professionals to provide reduced cost design assistance to ministries in under resourced nations who are helping the poor and proclaiming the gospel of Christ. 

As you can see from the these two pictures above, not a lot has changed from the 1950's to the 2020's. But the condition of the structure has deteriorated as you can image after 70 years of operation. Below is a photo of the top of the exterior wall. This building will need to be demolished, redesigned and rebuilt in the coming years:

The adjacency diagrams below is a tool used by a lot of Architects like myself. It will initially focus more on functions rather than buildings, but one story it does tell is how prominent evangelists need to minister to the patients:

In re-planning the hospital, it gives us a chance to separate the ER from the Medical Ward building like some other African hospitals have done. The existing ER is currently located inside the existing Medical Ward:

In natural progression, these are placed on a site plan to more clearly understand how each function relates on the site:

As part of an expanded phase 4, EMI has been asked to look at the expansion of the existing CREN. The CREN (Centre de Rehabilitation et Education Nutritionnel) is the nutritional rehab center for malnourished children under the age of five. It was established as a place where local mothers could find practical ways in helping care and learn how to provide nutritious food on a low budget using local ingredients.

Lastly, by reducing the size of buildings at the entry, it also allows the hospital to have a better triage space at the entry. Even though this has always been important during TB and Malaria season, it is becoming even more pronounced in the COVID pandemic times:

The United Nations reports that Niger is one of the least developed nations on our planet with a high majority of citizens who live below the poverty line. It is one of the reasons that it has takes some time go get from Phase 1 to Phase 4. In the coming years, other projects like new Surgical Wards will also need to be planned for. Below is an image of the existing surgical ward:

“Unless the Lord builds the house, its builders labor in vain”. (Psalm 127:1)

Thank you for reading to the end!

Grace and Peace,

Dan