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fflicted areas across the globe may soon receive medical assistance through BUILD’s latest initiative — Texas Aggie Medical Units.
BUILD, a Texas A&M organization that partnered with Habitat for Humanity last year to build a home, will construct four fully functional medical facilities from donated shipping containers. The construction of these “TAMUs” will begin on Simpson Drill Field in October, and the project will run through mid-November, said Drew Allen, chief executive officer of BUILD.
Allen said students and advisors involved with BUILD are still discussing potential destinations for the TAMUs.
“We’ve been planning this project since the beginning of 2014 by getting a team together and gathering monetary and product donations,” Allen said. “Nothing is set in stone, but we’ve been talking to [non-governmental organizations] from Bolivia, Honduras, Haiti and Colombia. Our hope is that we can send our units to these countries.”
The blueprints for the medical units are located on the BUILD website. Each medical unit contains six separate rooms, including three rooms with a bed, a waiting room, a lab area where medical supplies will be stored and a room that holds the air conditioning unit. Each medical unit will also have running water and electrical plugs.
“These facilities are versatile in design,” Allen said. “They can range from simply being a place for putting a Band-Aid on someone to offering more intense medical assistance.”
Allen said depending on the different needs of each location, the medical units will be suited to serve for specific necessities from the individual afflicted area.
BUILD is accepting volunteer applications, which can be found on its website, said Russell Bormann, volunteer coordinator for BUILD.
“Student volunteers will be painting, hammering nails, and holding up walls, while the adult supervisors will be the ones working with the power tools along with the BUILD supervisors,” Bormann said. “In the next three weeks, we will be talking to different organizations around campus at their meetings to try to recruit more
volunteers. We will also release a pump-up video online and have sign holdings across campus. Along with volunteers, we are also looking for around 40 student supervisors to help with the day to day activities.”
Bormann said BUILD is still trying to determine how many students are needed to help in the construction of the TAMUs.
Amy Brooke, chair of MSC FISH, said her organization has already signed up to volunteer for the service project. Brooke said participation in the 2014 service project would help the freshmen involved learn the Aggie core values.
“Every Friday we will be there,” Brooke said. “We have shifts that are at least two hours and we will be sending a small group of at least five students each week.”
Allen said more TAMUs may be constructed in the future but no solid plans have been made.