A Cameroon-U.S. design collaboration for the future.
Our mission to provide healthcare to rural mothers and children in Africa must focus on the lack of medical infrastructure. Applying our 15 years of experience with micro-clinics, we have created a custom prototype.
Our design provides space for deliveries, pre- and postnatal care, consultations, health education, and screenings. The structure will be built with local labor and materials and be completely sustainable.
Ngum Gerald Dinse of Sodaces, an architectural & engineering company in Cameroon, created a blueprint. Sadie Dempsey, a Master of Architecture student at Columbia University of New York, Graduate School of Architecture optimized the original plan.
The final drawings are being refined in Cameroon with medical advice from board members Monica Shah and Nausheen Hakim.
Inspired by village life.
Like an African village, the central courtyard will become a traditional gathering place with patients using the open outdoor space for consultations and prenatal visits.
Floor plan, Unite for Health prototype micro-clinic.
100% SUSTAINABle.
The micro-clinic will be powered by solar panels on the roof and a hole bored to supply water, aided by a solar-powered pump.
3-D exterior view, Unite for Health prototype micro-clinic – sustainable features and building materials.
Care for pregnant women, mothers and children.
The design incorporates a prenatal sonogram room, birthing rooms, a post-birthing room, a surgery for Cesarean sections, post-surgery recovery rooms for mothers and babies, and overnight accommodation.
It has rooms for consulting, vaccinations, a lab, patient check-in and waiting, in addition to bathrooms and storage. Out of respect for local customs, it incorporates a private room to treat the village leader.
Our plans are taking shape.
Unite for Health has a special relationship to Misaje Subdivision, 12 rural villages in NW Cameroon with disturbing levels of maternal and infant mortality. Our founder, Elvis, grew up there. With his connection to civic leaders and the Shaa Women Unions, Unite for Health is actively looking to acquire a plot of land in one of the villages, Dumbu. We look forward to posting exciting updates soon.
Looking ahead.
The goal is to build our first Unite for Health maternal health micro-clinic as an economical model for other underserved communities in Cameroon and beyond, for the health of mothers and their children and the happiness of families.
Help us build it.
We are looking for funding at various levels:
GOLD – Phase 1 / Construction Funder:
Cost estimate Being prepared
The prototype will have a sign ‘Construction donated by XXXX’.
SILVER – Phase 2 / Equipment & Supplies Funder:
Cost estimate Being prepared
All furniture, equipment and supplies, from beds to diagnostic tools and medical consumables. ‘Donated by XXXX’ will be on a sign and on stickers attached to large equipment and furniture.
BRONZE – Phase 3 / Staffing & Operations Funder:
Cost estimate Being prepared
To recruit medical and administrative staff, pay salaries, utilities, software and services for 24 months until the micro-clinic becomes self-sustaining. ‘Operations funded by XXXX’ will be on a sign and printed on plastic medication bags.