An Interview with Manny Hernandez, Founder of TuDiabetes
Learning how to eat
Impressed by the work www.diabeteshandsfoundation.org and its two online communities, www.TuDiabetes.org and www.EsTuDiabetes.org do with people with diabetes, I asked Manny Hernandez, its founder, to let us know a little more about the Foundation and himself.
Although Manny is quite busy running these communities, taking care of his family, and writing books, he still found the time to answer my questions. Thank you very much, Manny.
E. You are the co-founder and the president of Diabetes Hands Foundation (DHF). What year was the foundation formed?
M. The Diabetes Hands Foundation was formed in late March 2008. However, TuDiabetes and EsTuDiabetes, the two online communities run by DHF date back to March and August 2007, respectively.
E. What motivated you to create DHF?
M. The Foundation was formed by me and my wife, Andreina Davila. Starting the foundation made sense since we were pretty much doing nonprofit work before we became one: we were not in it for a profit, but rather passionate about helping others feel the sense of connection I found when I first attended an Insulin Pump Users club back in Orlando, FL (where we used to live). This was a bit inspiration for creating the communities and the communities in turn became the inspiration to form the foundation.
E. What is purpose behind the Diabetes Hands Foundation?
M. We have two goals: connecting people touched by diabetes and raising diabetes awareness.
E. What type of support and information does Diabetes Hands Foundation provide people with?
M. The foundation offers the platforms for support and information to flow among members of our communities. TuDiabetes and EsTuDiabetes are two of the programs we run in the foundation:
http://diabeteshandsfoundation.org/Diabetes_Hands_Foundation/Our_Work.html
E. DHF has groups of volunteers. How can a person get involved and help as a volunteer? Who should he/she contact?
Support
M. People can help DHF in a number of ways. To volunteer, the easiest way is to read this page:
http://diabeteshandsfoundation.org/Diabetes_Hands_Foundation/Get_Involved.htmlwhere we list the volunteer opportunities and have a form anyone can complete to send us their contact info and details so we can contact them about volunteer opportunities matching their skills and interests.
E. What type of work can a volunteer do in your organization?
M. We always need help with moderating the communities, distributing information about the community, social media management (we have a presence in Facebook and Twitter, where we have more than 10,000 combined “fans”/followers). Also, there’s a group called DHF Ambassadors, that represent us in local areas, organizing meet ups and carrying the DHF “flag” for us to places where we are not physically based. In the end, we continue to work towards the same things: connecting people touched by diabetes and raising diabetes awareness. Online or offline, our goals are still the same.
E. I have my counseling office in the city of Montebello, in the vicinity of Los Angeles, California. Since I am far from Berkley, give me an example of what I can do to help the Foundation in my area.
M. You could have 4×6 cards describing the communities (TuDiabetes.org and EsTuDiabetes.org) for people to take them home, so they can check out the sites when they get home.
Friends
You could join forces with Jaimie and Zoey, our Southern California DHF Ambassadors:
http://www.tudiabetes.org/profile/DHFSouthernCaliforniaEmbassy
You could help attend a booth about DHF and its programs at nearby events, such as TCOYD in San Diego (in the Fall).
E. People can make financial contributions to your organization. Some people may not feel comfortable paying on line. Can they send you a check by mail? To what address?
M. Anyone can make a tax-deductible donation to Diabetes Hands Foundation by sending a check to:
Diabetes Hands Foundation
P.O. Box 9421
Berkeley CA 94709
E. Tell us a little about you. Who is Manny Hernandez?
M. Manny is from Venezuela. I was born in 1972 to parents 42 and 44 years old at the time. I have no other brothers or sisters. I lost my dad in 2005 to liver cancer but my mom still lives. My wife and my 7-year old son are my biggest love and a source of continuous support and inspiration. We live in Berkeley and love it here. It’s close enough to San Francisco, balanced with proximity to a vibrant campus (UC Berkeley) and lots of other organizations doing great things for people: it’s both, exciting and empowering, to live here.
I am always listening to music: I think I could have as well been a musician! When I am not working, I enjoy watching movies (independent and documentaries are my favorites), reading and discovering new places with my family. I love hanging out with local friends and catching up with longtime friends online.
E. What is your typical day at DHF?
M. This may sound a bit clichéd, but there are few typical days in our work. However, there is some method to the work we do: we meet at the start of every week to see what we accomplished last week and plan for the week ahead. We also meet once a month to look at the month ahead of us and distribute the big tasks among the team members. We do this for the foundation as a whole, as well for both of our communities, for our teams of administrators.
Aside from that, different days will have different running meetings/calls related to the different programs, to make sure we’re staying on top of all the moving pieces. 
.
E. Besides being involved with DHF, what else do you do?
M. Most of my time is spent working on DHF. However, I also do consulting to help other groups develop their social media strategy. Aside from work, I also love reading and writing (I have written one book -Ning for Dummies-, collaborated in another book -Twitter Marketing for Dummies- and I am currently writing a chapter for a book about Health 2.0 in Spanish to come out later this year).
E. Thank you Manny for taking the time to inform us how we can help your organization. Diabetes type 2 is becoming rampant in our society and it doesn’t have to be that way. If all of us unite our forces to inform people how to prevent or manage this disease, we’ll spare people from a lot of suffering.
Emilia Klapp, RD,BS
www.TheDiabetesClub.com
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