ELWA started as a radio ministry and given a land grant in the 50′s. Early in the mission given their presence it became apparent medical treatment was needed for the people of Liberia as they came to ask and rely on the radio station for help. The hospital was established and grew to an 80 hospital. During the prolonged fighting and civil war ELWA hospital was looted and damaged multiple times while the site was abandoned and evacuated. Later the land was reoccupied and ELWA hospital resumed it’s operations. In 2009 Franklin Graham, President of Samaritan’s Purse, visited ELWA Hospital as SP shared the 800+ acre site with ELWA and their parent organization Serving in Mission. He was appalled by the condition of the hospital giving life saving medical treatment. He resolved to fund a building of a new hospital for ELWA and the people of Liberia. Shortly after EMI was called upon to design a new 150+ bed hospital that would expand their treatment and be fully modern.

I went in 2012 as a part of their multi-discipline volunteer team. We had 7 members of the team: 1 Staff Architect, 2 Interns (me included), 2 Civil Engineers, 1 Structural Engineer and 1 MEP Engineer. We took the previously established Master Plan of the hospital (a previous EMI team visit) and design the first half of building to be constructed, in addition to staking out the perimeter walls and wash facilities for immediate construction.

As the Architectural Intern I was responsible for taking the hand drawings of the staff architect and translating them into CAD drawings (following EMI standards) and making 3D presentation drawings while in country. Later I help remake these drawings in REVIT, helping the EMI transition to REVIT usage.