Manna Project International was created in 2003 after a group of students from Vanderbuilt University returned from a spring break trip in Lima, Peru where they lived and worked with street kids. They wanted to create a way for college students to be aware of other people's plight and to provide opportunities come alongside and serve each other. Thus, MPI was officially started.
Since then, Manna Project has created two international sites in Managua, Nicaragua and Quito, Ecuador where college graduates live and work full-time in these communities. They provide programs like women's health groups, child sponsorship, feeding programs, English courses, and math/ literacy tutoring. College chapters of MPI fill local needs in the states concerning immigrant populations, while also raising awareness of global issues, volunteer internationally through spring break and summer trips, and fundraising for Manna's projects abroad.
Since its inception at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington, MPI- Wilmington has aimed at engaging students in global service. In our first year, through benefit events and community involvement we raised $8,000 to build a covered basketball/ soccer court as part of a community center in Managua, Nicaragua. During our spring break, students helped with the construction of the court and also visited Manna Project's programs. In our second year MPI-W collected 1,000 pairs of shoes to be donated locally and internationally, sponsored a child in Nicarauga, and held a benefit concert that raised thousands of dollars for a trash-dump community in Nicarauga. In our next year we hope to continue with this momentum to plant local projects in the Wilmington area and to support more projects at MPI's international sites.