Manāna Philly Featured in the Daily Pennsylvanian

The Manāna Philly team was recently featured in an article published in the Daily Pennsylvanian, the student newspaper at the University of Pennsylvania.

The Philly branch, founded in 2018, is made up of undergraduate students at Penn. They have partnered with the Ronald McDonald House, Puentes de Salud, and West Philadelphia Public Schools to celebrate with children in person, but when COVID-19 forced the entire country into lockdown, their plans for the rest of the semester had to change.

Instead of throwing in-person birthday parties, our team of volunteers decided to take the celebrations online by creating the initiative Hope@Home: Manāna Virtual Cards. Through this project, they have partnered with Penn Medicine to send virtual birthday messages and messages of hope to children of frontline healthcare workers battling the pandemic.

Check out the Daily Pennsylvanian article, which details the efforts of the Philly team to continue celebrating virtually with children through our Hope@Home initiative. We are so proud of our volunteers who have been working hard to film and edit the virtual birthday cards and messages of hope. Although we are unable to celebrate with children in person at this time, we are excited to continue carrying out our mission while supporting families who are affected by this crisis.