Health group answers: Who is Timmy?

A few weeks ago, students woke up to find mysterious white flyers littering campus, and they all began to ask the same question: Who is Timmy?

But Allie Jorgensen, the founder and president of UNC’s chapter of Timmy Global Health, said Timmy isn’t actually a person.

“Timmy represents the idea that everyone deserves access to health care and education,” she said.

Jorgensen began recruiting fellow students initially through word-of-mouth marketing but decided this year to promote the club more aggressively in hopes of doubling its membership, which is 35 members.

The chapter held an interest meeting Sunday that drew about 30 students.

“We put up 300 signs all over campus one night for three hours and have received an overwhelming response,” said Katherine Peters, the group’s treasurer and fundraising chair.

“We’ve had more than a hundred people ask us, ‘Who is Timmy?’”

Jorgensen, a sophomore, founded the UNC chapter last December after she became ill on her first Timmy-affiliated trip the summer before coming to UNC.

“I was climbing a mountain in Quito, Ecuador, when I suddenly experienced altitude sickness and almost passed out,” she said.

“I turned to my brigade leader and said, ‘If you can get me to the summit of this mountain and safely back down, I’ll start my own Timmy Global Health chapter.’”

UNC’s chapter is one of 12 university chapters connected to the national organization, which was founded in 1997.

Jorgensen said the national founder of Timmy, Dr. Chuck Dietzen, was working in India with Mother Teresa when he was inspired to start an organization in honor of his older brother, Timmy, who died during infancy.

The club hopes to raise money through benefit nights and other means to support medical care in Tena, Ecuador, one of the towns Timmy is affiliated with.

The club hopes to send up to 18 members to Tena next August on a trip.

“We can make a measurable impact in these people’s lives through simple things like fundraising and awareness campaigns, so why wouldn’t we?” said Lizzie Robinson, the UNC chapter’s marketing chair.

“Global health equity is a basic human right — everyone should have access to sustainable health care.”

“Just because these people live in rural areas does not make them any less entitled to the same medical care that I receive.”

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