Expanding Access to Care in Central Haiti
The Mirebalais Hospital
In 2009, Partners In Health (PIH) and the Ministry of Health of Haiti requested that Dr. David Walton help design and build a new 100-bed community hospital in Mirebalais, Haiti, a small city 60 kilometers north of Port-au-Prince. For this large project, David solicited help from Jim Ansara. Jim, who had retired after 30 years of running Shawmut Design & Construction, one of the largest design-build companies in the United States, was eager to work with David on this project. In mid-2009 they started the planning process.

Hit by Devastation
Building Back, Better
Jim and David had nearly completed the design of the 100-bed community hospital when, in January 2010, a magnitude 7.0 earthquake struck Haiti, destroying much of the country’s infrastructure, including more than 50 hospitals and clinics as well as the main referral hospital for the entire country. The Haitian Ministry of Health asked PIH to change their plans for Mirebalais hospital and build a 300-bed university teaching hospital, much larger in size, scope, and complexity than originally planned. Construction began in July of 2010, and the 240,000-square-foot complex was inaugurated in October of 2012 as Hôpital Universitaire de Mirebalais, a new national teaching hospital and the largest solar-powered hospital in the Caribbean.

Jim and David realized the need for designing, building, and maintaining health-care facilities extended far beyond Mirebalais – within Haiti and globally. BHI was formally founded in 2014 and, by 2020 has completed more than 150 projects in Haiti, Latin America, and Africa.
Today
Latin America & the Caribbean
- 1. Mexico
- 2. Bahamas
- 3. Haiti
- 4. Puerto Rico
- 5. Peru
West Africa
- 6. Sierra Leone
- 7. Liberia
- 8. Niger
- 9. Nigeria
East Africa
- 10. Ethiopia
- 11. Uganda
- 12. Kenya
- 13. Rwanda
- 14. Burundi
- 15. Tanzania
- 16. Democratic Republic of the Congo
Southern Africa
- 17. Zambia
- 18. Malawi
- 19. Zimbabwe
- 20. Lesotho
- 21. Madagascar
Asia
- 22. Bangladesh