Arup’s Singapore office has thrown its support behind Mae Tao Clinic, an NGO which provides free medical care in Mae Sot, a town along the Thai/Burmese border.
The clinic serves up to 75,000 patients each year, all of whom come from vulnerable ethnic communities in Myanmar – some having left their homes to live in Thailand, others having travelled for days to get across the Burmese border – in order to receive basic health care that is not normally available, or affordable to them.
Relying solely on donations, the clinic provides health care ranging from the basic treatments to common illnesses, to counselling and holistic medicine, such as acupuncture. In addition, the clinic also provides accommodation, food and even schooling, for the family of patients, many of whom may stay on for months on end.
Due to the construction of a highway between Thailand and Myanmar, the clinic can no longer remain in the same location. In 2012, Arup was approached by Jan Glasmeier (an ex-Arupian) of Agora Architects, to help design the overall wastewater system, as well as the children’s recreation centre, of the new Mae Tao clinic.
Three members of the design team, Sonia Yeung, Nikki Shaw and Vellachi Ganesan, conducted a site visit in early May 2013.
“We were able to gain a better understanding of how Mae Tao clinic operates; the site conditions of the new location; and what the children and the childcare workers of the clinic wanted for the new recreation centre.” Said Sonia Yeung.
“The optimism and hard work of those within Mae Tao clinic and Agora Architects have spurred on our enthusiasm to help build an improved clinic, to better serve the marginalized Burmese communities. With the information we have gathered, we hope to come up with designs and ideas that will be in tune with the end users and the local conditions, to bring about healthier results for those that visit the clinic.”
