BUILD Announces Five Organizations To Receive The 2023 Texas Aggie Medical And Veterinary Clinics

BUILD announces that five non-governmental organizations (NGOs) will be recipients of four Texas Aggie Medical Clinics (TAMCs) and one Texas Aggie Veterinary Clinic (TAVC) that will be constructed by Texas A&M students this fall. The student organization’s volunteer members convert shipping containers into medical and veterinary facilities that can be deployed anywhere.

This year’s recipients are Medical Bridges, VOOM Foundation, The Gouri Village Project and Walk With Me/Tying Vines. Additionally, South Texas Animal Rescue was selected as the recipient of BUILD’s first Texas Aggie Veterinary Clinic (TAVC).

In the spring, the BUILD executive team conducted a holistic selection process to identify the NGOs that would receive TAMCs in 2023. BUILD received applications from 13 organizations seeking to receive clinics and after the five NGO partners were selected, construction began in September.

BUILD members say they believe each TAMC and TAVC will create a powerful and lasting impact on the local communities they serve.

Learn more about this year’s recipient organizations:

Medical Bridges – Ukraine: Medical Bridges (Houston, Texas) is a grassroots NGO that brings caring people together to challenge healthcare inequities in a sustainable way by procuring and distributing medical equipment and supplies to underserved communities around the world. In addition to two TAMCs already deployed to Ukraine, the 2023 TAMC will provide much needed medical services for refugees displaced due to the Russo-Ukrainian War.

VOOM Foundation – Nigeria: VOOM Foundation is a private international medical humanitarian organization made up of volunteer doctors, nurses, health workers, and other support professionals who seek to provide impartial sustainable healthcare programs to communities in need in Nigeria. This will be the fourth TAMC received by the VOOM Foundation. The 2023 TAMC will be deployed within a 100-mile radius of the Dame Irene Okwuosa Memorial Hospital, which will allow them to expand their reach and provide necessary medical services to the people residing in surrounding villages.

The Gouri Village Project – Chad: The Gouri Village Project’s mission is to improve the lives of the people of Gouri Village and surrounding communities in Southern Chad by implementing more program initiatives in the areas of education, health and well-being, and economic and social enterprise. This will be the first TAMC sent to Gouri Village to serve the Gouri community and approximately 26 neighboring villages in the Peni sub-division. The TAMC will provide the surrounding community with a central location for basic healthcare needs and aspirations and will be a welcome addition to the fragile healthcare infrastructure in the region.

Walk With Me/Tying Vines – Turkey: Walk With Me and Tying Vines are established partner NGOs that work alongside trusted regional partners to help facilitate medical care, educational, and vocational training programs that directly benefit underserved communities. Walk With Me and Tying Vines currently have four TAMCs within their network in Yemen and Jordan. The fifth will provide medical support for refugees and internally displaced persons in the Antakya or Gaziantep regions in Turkey where the healthcare infrastructure is currently decimated in the aftermath of the earthquake on Feb. 6, 2023.

South Texas Animal Rescue (STAR) – Corpus Christi, Texas: This first-ever Texas Aggie Veterinary Clinic was made possible by the collaboration between BUILD and Dr. Leslie Easterwood and her students at the Texas A&M School of Veterinary Medicine & Biomedical Sciences. In their Community Service in Veterinary Medicine course, Easterwood’s students completed a semester-long project in which they were tasked with planning and designing a veterinary service project concept from a 40-ft shipping container. Amongst seven competing teams, the project team (Beth Briscoe, Stephanie Cavazos, Alexandria Inbody, Kathryn Herin, Macy Friedrich, and Kaitlyn Turany) that created a mobile veterinary clinic concept for STAR was announced as the winning project. With their first Texas Aggie Veterinary Clinic, STAR will provide accessible veterinary care to underserved communities and improve health outcomes for rescued animals in Corpus Christi, Texas.

About BUILD

The mission of BUILD is to unite the Texas A&M University student body through a physically demanding, large-scale service project each fall. Founded in 2013, BUILD is a student organization and nonprofit that converts 40-foot shipping containers into fully-functional, portable medical clinics that are shipped domestically and internationally to communities in need. Learn more about BUILD and their mission at www.buildtamu.com.