A great story of how two people find each other to help others and to push each other forward. Dr. dent. Saulo Gamarra and Danièle Turkier decide not only to work together, but to merge their heart projects, their two NGOs into one. How this new organization has become reality, what’s the motivation behind, how they developed their vision, which name they decided on and how the two founders and how they took the opportunity for a complete makeover.
How the fusion started
Danièle had a desire to see her charity "Con Corazón" in Peru evolve. For this reason, she asked Saulo in the summer of 2020 if he would like to take over the local management. The two got in touch through the Swiss foundation "Secours Dentaire International" and had been in regular exchange with each other for quite a while. Saulo spontaneously agreed to take over the management of "Con Corazón" in addition to his own NGO "Dentist Serving the Poor - Latin America". After working together for a few months, Saulo and Danièle realized that they both harmonized very well, sharing the same values, complementing and enriching each other. Danièle appreciate a lot that Saulo works very efficient, professional and conscientious.
Consequently, one led to the other and the two decided that they would like to merge their two organizations. For “Dentist Serving the Poor - Latin America”, it was an excellent opportunity to expand geographically and to be able to work regularly in remote areas. For "Con Corazón" it was a unique opportunity to professionalize the whole organization in Peru. In addition, a joint growth offers further possibilities to gain more weight as an NGO and to strengthen the cooperation with universities. Furthermore, it was an advantage that we could use numerous synergies, present ourselves more professionally to the outside world, merge our network, and the costs on the ground were cheaper overall with one organization. All of these thoughts led to the clear realization that a merger of our organizations was imperative. "Saulo and I really found each other. That we took this step to work together and merge our organizations a real stroke of luck and a win-win situation for both of us," Danièle says with conviction.
So Saulo proceed with the transfer of the organization, changes in the statutes and the official change of name to "Ayudando Con Corazón". These complex adjustments in Peru take a long time, not only due to the pandemic, but also require patience from all sides – which isn’t the strengh of both. ;-) But after about half a year the merger was finally completed in the middle of 2021. This year showed that the step toward the fusion was worthwhile. Saulo's in-depth professional knowledge of how to run a dental clinic and a medical center professionally, his conceptual strengths, and his understanding of Peruvian and Swiss culture are very valuable for the cooperation. On the other hand, Danièle, an all-rounder, can contribute strongly with her visionary ideas, her leadership and marketing experience. Saulo says about his motivation to lead such an NGO as director: "I do this with great commitment to my fellow citizens, to relieve suffering and to give them access to health care. Thanks to the merger, we have a much broader base. As a result, we can now expand the area of operation and additionally implement sustainable measures to give vunerable people prospects for a better life. This is clearly a matter of the heart for me."
New Common Corporate Identity
Once the future path with a joint organization in Peru was decided between Danièle and Saulo, it was obvious that we wanted to evolve on a visual and communication level. It was immediately clear that the appropriate name "Con Corazón" should absolutely continue to exist. Because both of them were enthusiastic about it!
The new vision "Health and perspectives for everyone" is based on the original visions of both organizations. Therefore, it was clear on our part that people should have access to health services and education and that we should give vulnerable people in the Peruvian Andes a sustainable perspective to improve their quality of life.
The first step was the creation of a new logo, which integrated the elements of the two original logos. This was the heart of "Con Corazón" and the hand of the logo "DSP-LA". The graphic designer Delia Sollberger, was immediately inspired to create a new logo for us, which included both attributes. At the same time, Danièle started to implement the new trilingual website. On the one hand, this meant that Danièle spent all her free time on the computer over the past few months to get the website up and running. Whether it's layouting, preparing images and text material, or translating the content. She was technically supported by Irene Brantschen to make sure that everything runs smoothly in the background. We would also like to thank Deborah Oken and Beatrice Heimann for their valuable input and proofreading. Saulo and Danièle are now looking forward to building on this professional foundation.
Outlook
In line with this new beginning, the dental clinic is moving out of the quarters of the Swiss Consulate and into new surroundings. At this point we would like to express our sincere thanks to the Swiss Consul Dr. Maja Dätwyler for the trust and the valuable exchange of her experiences.
As Saulo and Danièle complement each other wonderfully, both are looking forward to finally realizing the full potential of the organization and being able to make more of an impact. Both are very excited to see what the future holds and if they will be able to implement all their ideas.
December 2021
P.S. Saulo and Danièle not only share a big heart and commitment to helping others, but also enjoy spending their free time in nature on the mountain bike.
