Annual Report
Since our founding in 2002, EMI Canada has come alongside Christian ministries worldwide as a strategic partner, lending our expertise as design professionals to capital projects that increase the capacity and effectiveness of each ministry we serve. In this role, we are privileged with a front-row seat to what God is doing across the globe through His people as they share God’s love in hospitals, schools, churches, children’s homes, and more.
This partnership model is not only integral to the delivery of our services, but as a part of the Body of Christ, it is built into our mandate.
“Instead, speaking in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ. From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows, and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work." [Ephesians 4:15-16]
Our partners include the individuals, organizations, and foundations that generously and faithfully support us with finances and other resources; our cross-Canada network of volunteer design professionals who offer their time, talent, and energy on our projects; and our ten affiliate offices in the EMI system. Together we make up the EMI body, with each part doing its particular and important work to keep our ministry functioning and healthy.
In this 2019 Annual Report, you will see the fruit born of these partnerships from Haiti and Tanzania to Malaysia and beyond. Through these kingdom-building projects, EMI has equipped and mobilized design professional volunteers and interns to weave their vocation with God's call to be on mission throughout the world.
You will see how our financial supporters have partnered with us to sustain and grow our work, and how growing collaborative efforts with other EMI offices are leveraging our strengths and laying the groundwork for new and creative ways to serve partner ministries.
Thank you for your partnership with EMI Canada. We are grateful for you, never taking for granted the value and encouragement that our EMI network across Canada provides. You are our community!
I pray you are encouraged by the fruit of our labour together.
Greg Young
Executive Director, EMI Canada
EMI is a network of Christian design professionals who impact communities through developing people, designing structures, and constructing facilities. These facilities - hospitals, orphanages, schools, clean water projects, and more - serve communities and the church by meeting physical needs and communicating God’s love in a practical way.
Learn more about EMI Canada's Vision, Mission, and Core Values
Our Activities
Timeline of 2019
Our Staff
Mobilizing professionals around the world
EMI Canada mobilizes full-time, faith-supported staff with various professional design backgrounds to work from our office in Calgary, Alberta, as well as other EMI offices around the world. These staff members recruit and lead design professional volunteers and interns in short-term mission teams to countries where professional-level design is unavailable or inaccessible.
The map below indicates where full-time EMI Canada staff, as well as our engineering and architecture interns from Canadian universities, served in 2019.
Our Intern Program
Training students from around the world
EMI Canada mobilizes university-level engineering and architecture interns from across Canada, and hosts interns from around the world. These interns are given an opportunity to travel, learn, and be mentored with project teams that serve international ministries during one of our 3-4 month terms each year.
Our Finances
EMI Canada's revenue and expenses
Your Partnership with EMI Canada
The ripple effects of one dollar
At EMI, we believe that God multiplies what we give to achieve great impact. He did it with five loves and two fish, and He does it with each dollar you contribute to the EMI Fund.
When you gave $1 to the EMI Fund in 2019, you mobilized over $14 dollars worth of professional design services to client ministries in countries and circumstances where professional design is either unavailable or inaccessible.
What’s more, through engagement with EMI, these client ministries can operate with increased capacity and sustainability, which means increased impact in their respective communities.
Our Continuing Partnerships
The Uganda Survey Practicum - Eight Years of Growth and Impact
At EMI, we have partnership in our DNA. From the beginning, we’ve approached our engagement with ministry organizations from a posture of partnership. Beyond just delivering professional design, we help our partners to plan strategically to ensure long-term sustainability and enhance their capacity. Together, we achieve greater impact.
From its founding in 2012 to today, the Uganda Survey Practicum program has been an example of impact achieved through partnership. The Practicum was born in response to a need for more robust hands-on training in land surveying in East Africa with a vision to develop competence, confidence, and integrity in young geomatics engineers. In addition, the Practicum sought to instill healthy and ethical lifestyle and workplace practices, with Christian values at the forefront.
The Practicum, a partnership between the EMI Uganda and EMI Canada offices, was founded by long-time EMI Canada volunteer and board member, Patrick Cochrane. He and his wife, Joan, have championed the program ever since, spending countless hours in Canada and Uganda building and delivering the program, and investing in the lives of practicum students.
The Practicum typically operates in two separate parts: a two-week introductory practicum for 3rd year engineering students at Uganda Christian University; and an eight-week intensive practicum for a smaller number of hand-picked students onsite at EMI Uganda. These sessions are facilitated by EMI volunteers, staff, interns, and Practicum alumni; and they are made possible with the partnership of several in-kind donors, providing classroom space, accommodation, survey equipment, and software.
The Practicum has seen significant growth over the years. In its inaugural year, the Practicum served five student participants. In 2019, a total of 84 student participants were served. The number of volunteer and staff trainers has increased as well – from one in 2012 to thirteen in 2019.
Beyond these metrics, the Practicum has had great impact in the lives of participants. These students leave the program better equipped to find employment and to serve their industry and communities with integrity and excellence. In fact, many Practicum students return to the program in a volunteer trainer capacity, giving back by building into the lives of those coming behind them in the profession. Referring to the 2019 Practicum season, Patrick Cochrane said it was the ‘most encouraging engagement of our alumni’, with several helping deliver various parts of the Practicum.
A shining example of the capacity-building that the Practicum is intended to accomplish is the story of Solome Achan. Solome attended the Practicum as a trainee in 2017. Showing great proficiency and promise, she progressed in the program, serving as an intern and training assistant in 2018, and then being promoted to lead the Practicum in 2019. Solome has now joined EMI Uganda as Staff Surveyor, and has primary responsibility for the Practicum. She will continue to develop, promote, and deliver the Practicum.
We praise God for the way He’s worked in the lives of Solome and many other Practicum students over the years, and we’re grateful for the way that He’s brought many partners to the table to see the Practicum develop and grow. Please join us in praying for the Uganda Survey Practicum as it continues to invest in the professional and spiritual lives of young professionals, and seeks to impact the surveying industry in Uganda and Eastern Africa.
