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.
 

Obeime

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.