Her new venture, the Mercy Foundation, kicks off this year with the goal of preventing unnecessary deaths in Nigeria through education and treatment. Among its first projects will be HIV testing for pregnant women in Obeime's rural home town of Uromi in midwestern Nigeria.

"A lot of pregnant women here have no access to free screenings, so they don't get tested," said Dr. John Oriaifo, an Uromi gynecologist. "You can't treat someone if you don't even know whether they're HIV-positive or not."

Obeime also wants her foundation to target obesity in the United States. She hopes to offer exercise and nutrition class scholarships because obesity is a big problem here.

Launching an international foundation is ambitious for a middle-class working mom who lives in Carmel. Obeime intends to pay for the group's work with fund-raisers. The first effort will be a fall benefit in Miami, where her husband's cousin is a professional party planner.

Donating her prize

She'll also use a $1,500 grant from a Spirit of Women Award she won in May. Based in Baltimore, the Spirit of Women National Foundation honors "ordinary women doing extraordinary things." Along with a grant for the charity of her choice, she won a $500 Dress Barn shopping spree and a commemorative Tiffany heart locket.

Spirit of Women's national director, Tanya Abreu, said she couldn't think of anyone more deserving than Obeime.

The Mercy Foundation is the latest in a long list of community service efforts for Obeime, whose resume is dense with volunteerism and social activism.

Obeime is a member of the National Coalition of 100 Black Women and the Aaesculapian Society, a black physician group. She serves on county committees dealing with such public health issues as AIDS, childhood immunization, lead poisoning, sexually transmitted diseases and smoking cessation, and has lobbied state legislators for improved health care for the poor.

Obeime also serves on Mayor Bart Peterson's Bioterrorism Task Force, Indiana Black Expo's health fair planning committee and a task force assessing the health care needs of Morgan County, particularly among the uninsured.

Virginia Caine is director of the Marion County Department of Health's obesity and physical fitness initiative. Obeime insisted on regular time off to volunteer for Health Department programs as a condition of her employment at St. Francis.

Caine said Obeime has a tremendous amount of energy, and knows how to use it.

"She's a renaissance woman," Caine said. "She can put patients at ease by talking to them in simple layman's terms, but in another setting she can testify in very sophisticated language to legislators or specialty physician groups."