News
Announcing the “Take a Trip With Timmy” Contest
Local partners, developing world health systems, underserved patients.
Three weeks, an Ipad 2, a GPS camera.
Local communities, blogging, Ecuador, Guatemala, the Dominican Republic.
Free.
What more could a global health aficionado ask for?
Timmy is excited to announce our first ever “Take a Trip with Timmy Global Health”contest brought to you by AMA Insurance Agency, Inc.’s Med Plus Advantage program. Two contest winners will receive:
1) A trip with a Timmy Global Health brigade to directly participate for up to three weeks in one of the local clinics Timmy partners with in Guatemala, Ecuador or the Dominican Republic.
2) A 64 Gigabyte iPad 2 with wireless and 3G capability
3) A waterproof digital camera with geo-tagging capability
4) A personal blog to share their Timmy Trip experiences
This is an incredible opportunity for pre-med, med students, residents, and Allied Health students interested in all things global health, and dedicated to fostering meaningful change in developing world communities.
With hundreds of essays and great responses across the board, the judges have selected our 10 finalists for Take a Trip with Timmy– visit the official contest site for updates on how you can vote for the final two winners.
September 28, 2011
Timmy Wins 2011 Indiana Achievement Award
The Indiana Achievement Awards are hosted by the IUPUI Non-Profit Solution Center, and recognize Indiana’s non-profits for exemplary practices, effectiveness, and leadership through its annual awards program and ceremony. Created by the Sycamore Foundation in 1999, the IAA continues as a coalition of foundations, businesses, and individuals who join together to reward effective nonprofits for their outstanding work and create exemplars of extraordinary practice in the nonprofit community. Timmy was thrilled to be honored as one of four recipients of the IAA awards in 2011. Please see a full description of the award in the Indianapolis Business Journal Announcement (below), and watch the promotional video created for Timmy by WFYI as part of the award package. Many thanks to all who have made Timmy’s continued success possible.
Click on the image to read Timmy’s feature in the IBJ, or download the PDF here.
July 19, 2011
New name, same impact
National nonprofit, the Timmy Foundation announces rebranding: Timmy Global Health
INDIANAPOLIS – After almost 14 years of empowering volunteers to expand access to health care and education around the world, Indianapolis-based Timmy Foundation is changing its name to Timmy Global Health.
With more than 20 university, high school and corporate partnerships domestically, and operations in Ecuador, Guatemala and Nigeria, Timmy has become a national non-profit leader in their efforts to empower students and volunteers to expand access to quality health care globally.
“The name change to Timmy Global Health reflects the growth in both the quantity and quality of our services,” explains Dr. Chuck Dietzen, founder and president of Timmy Global Health, “When I founded Timmy in 1997 and named it after my older brother, I always dreamed that it would become a global organization that touches thousands of lives both at home and abroad every year. The incredible support of our network has made that hope a reality, and I could not be more thankful for what our students and volunteers have done for Timmy and the people we support.”
Matt MacGregor, Timmy’s executive director, describes the change as a natural evolution of the organization’s work, programming and mission. “During the last two years, our efforts to build the capacity of partner organizations and expand access to health have grown by leaps and bounds,” says MacGregor. “Changing the name will not alter our mission, spirit or impact, but will help us more clearly delineate who we are and what we do. During a time of continued economic challenges, ensuring that we grow what we do best, focus on our core constituencies, and keep inspiring the next generation of leaders to tackle today’s problems will be essential to Timmy’s long term sustainability and impact. And more importantly, it will be essential to meeting the needs of the patients, families, and communities we seek to serve.”
Each year, Timmy Global Health works with hundreds of university and high school students, medical professionals, volunteers, and corporate partners to deliver high quality medical services and build the capacity of hospitals, medical clinics, and schools in the developing world. Timmy’s hybrid mission balances volunteer and student empowerment with the delivery of financial, in-kind and human resources to international partner organizations and underserved communities.
From 2009 to 2011, despite the economic downturn, Timmy Global Health’s outreach has grown dramatically. An increase in an overall financial budget from around $750,000 in 2009 to more than a million in 2011 has led to a corresponding increase in programming. During the last two years, Timmy doubled the amount of student chapters that support international partners, more than doubled the amount of international medical teams that volunteer abroad each year, and grew its overall programming by approximately 125 percent. In addition, Timmy’s Indianapolis-based Medical Supply Warehouse is now an invaluable resource for both local and international organizations focused on expanding access to health.
May, 2011, Indianapolis Woman Magazine
“Leaving a Legacy“
When asked how she became inspired to become a physician, volunteer and a philanthropist, Dr. Mercy Obeime always has an immediate answer: her grandmother — a woman who lived a simple life and didn’t have the benefit of an education.
“My grandmother shared her wisdom and advice with me on how to live the most authentic life,” says Obeime, founder of Mercy Missions Nigeria. “Her wisdom and spirit still drive me today.”
Recently, Obeime shared that story at a conference. Later an artist approached her with the gift of a necklace to symbolize that maternal connection.
“For me, this necklace has become a symbol of the need to live life to the fullest and a reminder of our ability to impact the world around us,” says Obeime, who decided to have the necklace reproduced for charity.
The Celebration of Life necklaces, which are individually handcrafted by Patora Fine Jewelers, are $225 each, of which $100 will be donated to the Timmy Foundation. The mission of the Indianapolis nonprofit organization is to increase access to health care and education both at home and abroad. Each buyer will receive a tax letter for their $100 donation.
To order, contact Patora at (317) 872- 6666. —Shari Scales Finnell, Indianapolis Woman
April 14, 2011
Marian University Announces Commencement Speaker, Honorary Degree Recipients
INDIANAPOLIS—Marian University is proud to announce that Dr. Mercy Obeime will deliver the 74th annual commencement address on Saturday, May 7, 2011. Obeime is the director for community and global health at Franciscan St. Francis Health and founder of the Mercy Foundation, a charitable organization which provides healthcare outreach and education to people in her homeland of Nigeria. In 2010, Mercy Foundation merged these programs with The Timmy Foundation, creating that organization’s fifth-largest international outreach program, Mercy Medical Missions. Obeime will receive an honorary degree of doctor of public service during the commencement ceremony.
The university has 484 candidates for degrees this year. For the first time, the university will confer degrees on students who studied nursing online in the accelerated bachelor of science in nursing (BSN) degree program. For the ninth time, master’s degrees will be conferred; 99 students will receive the master of arts in teaching; 169 adult students will earn accelerated business administration degrees from Marian’s Adult Programs.
Two other individuals will receive honorary degrees on May 7. Sr. Lavonne Long, OSF is a retired teacher, principal, and guidance counselor who worked for Scecina Memorial High School for 36 years. She will receive an honorary doctor of divinity. Michael Simmons is a former high school teacher who built a successful career as an IT systems engineer and executive for such firms as AFNB, Fidelity Investments, Bank of America, Bank of Boston, and Security Capital Group. He will receive an honorary doctor of business administration.
About Marian University
Marian University (www.marian.edu) is the only Catholic liberal arts university in central Indiana. It is a private, co-educational school offering classes to both traditional and non-traditional students. Located two miles northwest of downtown Indianapolis, Marian University is a Catholic university dedicated to excellent teaching and learning in the Franciscan and liberal arts traditions. It is one of Indiana’s 31 independent colleges, and one of 244 Catholic colleges and universities in the United States. On July 1, 2009, Marian College became Marian University. On January 15, 2010, Marian University announced it would develop the first college of osteopathic medicine in the state of Indiana.
January 2011
“Journey to the Middle of the Earth”
Find the original article with images at the DePauw University website
Ecuador sits atop South America’s western shoulder, named for the line of latitude it straddles. Access to healthcare in its mountainous countryside is often a luxury. When the nearest doctor is hours away, some conditions won’t be treated for weeks or even months – if ever.
For many years, the Indianapolis-based Timmy Foundation has worked with local medical professionals in Ecuador’s capital, Quito, to provide medical services to the city’s poor. In January 2011, the charity sent its first medical brigade to Ecuador’s Napo province, where a dirt lane is often the main road and some villages can only be reached by boat. Nineteen DePauw students and professors joined the medical professionals on the trip, officially part of DePauw’s Winter Term.
At each clinic the group held – typically in a host community’s open-air school – students escorted patients between different stations, where they shadowed nurses, physicians and dentists. At Check-In, students took notes on patient histories to determine what services were needed; at Vitals, blood pressure, height and weight were measured; at Treatment, students learned about diagnostic and treatment techniques; and at the pharmacy, they became familiar with what types of medicine were commonly prescribed for different conditions.
“By the end of the trip, we had become a well-oiled machine at keeping the flow from station to station,” says Daniel G. Gurnon, assistant professor of chemistry and biochemistry, a faculty leader for the trip.
The volunteers had a chance to take part in different roles in the clinics, changing at least one student’s future plans. Junior Elizabeth A. Botts set off to Ecuador knowing she wanted a career in the medical field, leaning toward a master’s degree in public health. And now?
“After spending one day in Vitals, I knew I wanted to be a nurse,” she says. “Having the knowledge to help those patients was a remarkable feeling. I’ve since learned that I can continue my education and obtain a master’s in public health nursing, if I choose to go that direction.”
Sharon M. Crary, associate professor of chemistry and biochemistry, has been faculty adviser for the DePauw chapter of the Timmy Foundation since its founding in 2004. The medical relief trips organized by the chapter are typically student-led, making this year’s Winter Term the first time she was able to see their work firsthand. Crary is no stranger to global health, however. She has traveled to Uganda for service work with Lacor Hospital, and with the Centers for Disease Control to repond to an outbreak of Ebola in the African nation. These trips abroad, she says, are the best way for students to learn about global health.
“Many students who have been a part of the DePauw chapter were pre-med, or went on to pursue master’s degrees in public health,” Crary says. “These trips help educate students about best practices in global health in a way you can’t get in a classroom environment.”
Crary also points out that while medical outreach has the potential to do more harm than good, the Timmy Foundation understood the needs of rural Ecuadorians. “You may be handing out medicines that people aren’t familiar with and don’t know how to take, and outsiders can disrupt the relationship people have with their local doctors,” she says. “[Our trip] was amazing because the Timmy Foundation does an incredible job at avoiding these pitfalls.”
Some of the travelers, such as sophomore Katherine “Katie” E. Broecker, a Spanish minor, were well prepared to deal with the challenges of providing healthcare in a different culture. Ironically, she says she felt most useful in a village where Spanish wasn’t spoken at all.
“We were in a very rural location full of indigenous populations who spoke the Quichua dialect,” Broecker remembers. “I was taking patient histories and had my own translator, Luis, who converted the Quichua into Spanish, which I would then translate into English. We would go back and forth like that translating for each patient. Luis didn’t speak a word of English, and I was worried about my Spanish skills, but we were able to communicate perfectly and to help the patients that came through the clinic. I was always touched when some of the patients would run through the clinic looking for me to ask a question or to help translate to an older family member – even when there were other translators around. They were so grateful that I was able to communicate effectively with them and relay their hurts and needs to the doctors.”
The group treated nearly 900 patients during 10 days in Ecuador. Now that it has established a presence in the Napo province, the Timmy Foundation will send a medical brigade every few months to follow-up with current patients and to treat new ones.
Soon after the DePauw group returned to Greencastle, the members began creating photobooks and an interactive map – materials that will help to raise money and awareness for their return trip in January 2012.
“The time that we used to discuss and organize information to be used in Timmy advocacy is equally as important as the work we did in Ecuador,” says senior William “Max” Hudson, the student trip leader. “Since the next group will return to the same areas that we visited, preparing them with our knowledge and experience is of the utmost importance to our work.”
July 18, 2010
Nigerian doctor cares for people here and at home
By Shari Rudavsky–Please find the original article at IndyStar.com
As a young man, Raymond Thomas spent 16 months in a tuberculosis sanitarium, an experience that left the Southside resident with a lifelong distrust of the medical profession. For years, his wife, Ann, could not get him to see a doctor.
Then, Ann dragged him to the St. Francis Neighborhood Health Center to see her own physician, Mercy Obeime. Fifty years of resistance melted away.
“My husband wasn’t an easy patient because he didn’t like doctors,” Ann Thomas recalls of her husband, who died in March. “But Dr. Obeime, he liked her from the beginning.”
“You did a lot,” Obeime told Ann during a recent visit. “You took care of him the way no one else could have.”
“That joined us together,” Ann responded, squeezing Obeime’s hand.
Taking care of people is what Obeime is all about. Her reach goes far beyond the Southside of Indianapolis.
A native of Nigeria, Obeime has made several trips to her homeland to help the ill there. The Mercy Foundation, launched to support those journeys, merged with the Indianapolis-based Timmy Foundation, which conducts similar missions throughout the world.
Doing what she can
Since high school, Obeime has cherished the prayer of St. Francis. She summarizes the message she carries in her heart: “When there is a problem, let me do what I can.”
When she finished her residency in 1996, she accepted a job with St. Francis. A Hamilton County resident, Obeime chose to work at the neighborhood health center near Garfield Park on the Southside as a family practitioner.
The lone doctor there was retiring, and many of the patients were indigent. You don’t want that job, administrators told Obeime. But she was adamant.
“It’s a bit atypical in our service area for patients of such limited means to have such wonderful access to care,” said St. Francis chief executive officer Robert Brody. “She doesn’t accept no for an answer, when she knows that there’s a need that can and should be addressed.”
Born in Nigeria in a rural village called Uromi, Obeime, now 46, was the oldest of 10. Most people who lived in her town were farmers. Those with education tended to be nurses or teachers, like her own parents.
At 11, Obeime left her home to attend a Nigerian school for gifted children in Benin City. The school aimed to bring children from Nigeria’s 250 tribes together. For her first five years, Obeime was the only person in her school who spoke Ishan, her town’s native language. That was not the biggest culture shock.
“The first lesson I learned on the day I got to school was there’s this word called poverty,” she said. “In the village, we never looked at people as haves and have nots.”
Early on, Obeime noted the distinction between their privileged upbringing and her own.
“I made the decision I did not want to be poor. I wanted to figure out a way out of this. I wanted to serve people, but I did not want to be poor.”
In high school, Obeime apprenticed with a local doctor. She started as a receptionist, taking patients’ medical histories, jotting down their complaints on a piece of paper, before graduating to nurse, pharmacist and surgical assistant.
Her first task in that role was cleaning the instruments used in surgery and soaked in a basin of bloody water.
“I have to put my hands in there?” she wondered. Gloves were a luxury reserved for the doctor. Today, Obeime marvels she never contracted a disease like hepatitis or HIV.
Obeime later entered medical school and dreamed of becoming a medical officer in her country’s army. Finding a mate did not concern her.
“In Nigeria, there are a lot of arranged marriages,” she said. “But I wasn’t going to let anyone arrange me.”
Love calls
Then, she met Christopher Obeime, a young optometrist (who later went to medical school to become a dermatologist) living in the United States who was home on a visit with his family in the Nigerian village where Mercy’s family lived. They married and she moved to the United States, where she started studying for her medical boards but soon learned she was pregnant. Thirteen months after moving here, the first of their three children was born.
Obeime had planned to specialize in obstetrics, but she decided that family medicine, which would allow her to deliver low-risk babies, was a better fit.
During her residency, she encountered Dr. Virginia A. Caine, director of the Marion County Health Department, in the corridors of Wishard Hospital. Caine introduced herself.
“Obeime, she’s a little bit different than most people that you meet,” Caine said. “She’s very animated, a lot of personality.”
From their first encounter, it was apparent that Obeime was focused not on her own career but on what she could do in the community and for others, Caine said. Caine invited her to meetings with movers and shakers like U.S. Sen. Richard Lugar and singer Bono, who were working on global AIDS initiatives. It did not take long for Obeime to get involved.
Obeime can charm the wealthy and poor alike, Caine said. “I think it is because she’s from a different culture. I think she has a better understanding of the individuals that come from different cultures.”
Some differences Obeime refuses to abide. The health center has a mix of indigent and private-pay patients. When Obeime first arrived, those who could not pay were told to head left, while the insured went to the right. Obeime bounced between the two sides.
Then a patient from the private side contacted her. Obeime had prescribed antibiotics for her grandchildren to treat an infection. Her daughter had the same disease, visited the non-paying side, and received an inferior drug, the woman said.
Turned out, Obeime had prescribed a different drug because the daughter had a penicillin allergy. Still, the perception of bias disturbed her.
She told St. Francis hospital administrators they had to merge the two sides.
“I said I can’t work in this situation. It makes me feel really bad that another human being was in here feeling they were treated poorly because they didn’t have money.”
Foundation work
Another experience led to the creation of the Mercy Foundation about a decade ago. While back in Nigeria on a visit, Obeime encountered a woman who died in part because she did not have the funds to purchase intravenous fluid. Her 5-year-old son stood at the woman’s deathbed, tugging her arm and asking her for food, as he had not eaten all day.
Obeime created her foundation to help prevent premature deaths like this one.
Merging with the Timmy Foundation will give the foundation that bears her name administrative and fundraising support. It will give the Timmy Foundation a program in Africa, says Matt MacGregor, the program’s executive director.
And it will also give the Timmy Foundation a most persuasive advocate. Earlier this year, Obeime went to Ecuador on a Timmy mission. The University of Colorado students who traveled with her loved having her, MacGregor said.
“For them, it was just wonderful to see what a medical professional like that could be. Mercy is the type of person who oozes the fact that she cares.”
June 20, 2010
Sound Medicine: “Doctors–Still in Haiti”
Interview with Chuck Dietzen, MD, founder, president and medical director with host Barbara Lewis
The earthquake in Haiti has been pushed off the front pages of the papers recently…but there’s still some heroic work going on every day, helping survivors recover from their devastating injuries.
Dr. Chuck Dietzen recently led a medical mission team to Haiti and set up a clinic outside of Port au Prince. Dietzen describes the typical day for doctors working in Haiti, which, as he notes, has virtually no medical resources.
Dietzen runs The Timmy Foundation, which aims to provide young people with meaningful ways to get involved in medicine and healthcare.
Visit the Sound Medicine website to learn more about the original interview, sponsored by the IU School of Medicine and WFYI Indianapolis.
Click to hear the Sound Medicine–Doctors Still in Haiti interview with Dr. Chuck and host, Barbara Lewis.
May 22, 2010
Timmy Foundation to absorb doctor’s Nigerian mission
Original article at IBJ.com Two Indianapolis doctors with a passion for helping foreign medical clinics are merging their missions. The Timmy Foundation, founded by Dr. Chuck Dietzen, will absorb the Mercy Foundation, started by Dr. Mercy Obeime, in July.
Timmy Foundation—which has concentrated its work in Guatemala, Ecuador and Haiti—will handle the administration for Mercy’s annual “medical brigades” to clinics in Nigeria, as well as ongoing support of doctors there.
Timmy Foundation Executive Director Matt MacGregor said Obeime’s foundation is very small, but was growing and would soon need full-time administrative personnel. Instead, Obeime decided to turn the program over and now serves on the larger foundation’s board.
It’s often difficult for the founders of not-for-profits to give up their independence, but MacGregor said doctors Obeime and Dietzen saw the merger as a sensible move.
“Neither of them are really that hung up on what they have created,” he said during a phone interview from Guatemala. “What they’re interested in doing is expanding the outreach and impact we have.”
Timmy Foundation will incorporate its use of college-student volunteers into the Mercy Foundation’s work in Nigeria. MacGregor said he hopes Timmy Foundation, a $1.8 million organization, will raise enough money to allow U.S. medical teams to visit Nigerian clinics more often than once a year.
Click here to view the original IBJ article.
April 16, 2010
IU’s Virtù Project raises $25,000 for Timmy Foundation
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – Savvy investment strategies and a year of strong growth in the stock market enabled the Virtù Project at Indiana University to triple the money it raised for the Timmy Foundation, an Indianapolis-based global health and development non-profit.
The project, created and run by students in the Liberal Arts and Management Program at IU Bloomington, is an original social entrepreneurship initiative that uses donor pledges to a mock investment portfolio to raise money.
This Friday (April 16), Virtù Project members will present a check for $25,000 to representatives of the Timmy Foundation, which works to expand access to health care and education for children in poor regions of Central and South America, the Caribbean, Africa and Asia. The check presentation will take place at 4:30 p.m. in the Von Lee Building second-floor conference room, 517 E. Kirkwood Ave.
“The Timmy Foundation is a philanthropic organization, but at the same time it is instilling humanitarian values and leadership skills in college students,” said Patrick Onkka, an IU Bloomington junior from South Bend and the current president of the Virtù Project. “I think that’s why we work so well together.”
“We are thrilled to be working directly with Virtu,” noted Matt MacGregor, the Timmy Foundation’s Executive Director. “Virtu offers students at IU an innovative educational platform to learn, while utilizing their talents to support Timmy’s programming. It’s exactly the type of hybrid initiative that epitomizes Timmy’s mission to expand access to healthcare and education while empowering students to engage directly in global development.”
Students created the Virtù Project and launched it in the fall of 2007 with the goal of performing a valuable service while at the same time gaining experience in investment, management, organization, communications and other skills. During the first year, the market crashed and the mock portfolio lost money, but donors came through and students presented a check for $7,610 to the Timmy Foundation in April 2009.
During the second year of investments – from December 2008 to December 2009 – the value of the portfolio increased by 32 percent. Donor commitments are capped at 15 percent of their pledges, a total of $25,000.
Students in the Liberal Arts and Management Program apply to take part in the Virtù Project, typically in their sophomore year. The project this spring has implemented an eight-week curriculum to train participants in making investment decisions and a change in structure to ensure that all members get experience in a range of skills related managing investments.
“I like the fact that we’re learning, but we also see concrete evidence of what we’re doing,” said Virtù Project partner Rachel Eldert, an IU junior from Munster.
For more about the Virtù Project, see http://www.indiana.edu/~virtu/.
The Timmy Foundation was established in 1997 by Dr. Charles Dietzen to help medically underserved children he had met while conducting medical missions in Haiti and India. Working with local partner organizations, the foundation conducts international medical brigades, distributes medical supplies and funding to organizations on the ground, and empowers young people to engage directly in global development.
The Liberal Arts and Management Program is an honors-level interdisciplinary certificate program offered by the College of Arts and Sciences in cooperation with the Kelley School of Business. It lets students integrate any major in the College with specialized training in management and business concepts. Approximately 100 students are admitted to the program each year.
April 14, 2011
Marian University Announces Commencement Speaker, Honorary Degree Recipients
Contact: Andrea Fagan, Marian University, 317.955.6213, afagan@marian.edu
Find the original article on the Marian Univerisity Website
