After being inspired by two college mission trips to the Philippines, Joanna Manti brought up the idea to the University of Southern California to start a nonprofit to help homeless children and orphans. She had decided to start one herself that would help the archipelago orphans, she named it the Cherish Hearts International. After class, Manti sent out emails to her old contacts in the Philippines, the first person to respond ended up being the first partnership with Cherish Hearts. In 2016 and 2018, Manti visited the island and was hurt to see the conditions that the unhouse
d children and orphans were living in. She volunteered in a children’s ministry but eventually had to return back to the US.
She then decided to major in business and took a class at USC to learn how to run a nonprofit, which she turned into Cherish Hearts International. This acts as a liaison to international business stakeholders to uncover areas of opportunity for the buildings of schools and shelters. The first opened in the summer of 2022 in Mindanao. It consisted of four classrooms, two washrooms, and a kitchen. It was helped by All the World Outreach and other donors.
Even with all the help Manti was doing, she wasn’t actually able to visit and check on how the shelters and schools were running until three years later because of strict government lockdowns and travel restrictions. After interviewing Manti for the USC newspaper, Ava Satterfield at the New Trojan heard from Manti that she wished she had got into nonprofit work at the level of undergraduate and suggested that anyone interested should get involved as early as possible.
