FAQs

Penpals United was founded by Jack Terschluse in 2011. His endocrinologist, Dr. Santosh Gupta, founded Manav Seva Foundation, a 501c3 organization that supports diabetes programs for the poor in India’s rural clinics. Jack started writing letters to the children in this program, and soon started video-chatting with them via Skype. Penpals United grew to serve more than 250 children in five different clinics across India, with a team of over 5 mentors who serve as role models to the children and would video-chat with the children at monthly support groups. Penpals United became a 501c3 nonprofit entity in 2013 and in 2016 received the Bakken Invitation grant from the Medtronic Foundation. Now, Penpals United is focused on investing in affordable, sustainable, social networks and content platforms for people with diabetes in developing areas to access.

This online platform offers the:

• Learn feature, which contains content from Dr. Gupta’s recent book about type one diabetes care in India, and other practical, day-to-day tips written by people with type one diabetes in developing areas for people with type one diabetes in developing areas. You can access this information using the tabs on the top of the page and the drop down menu when hovering over “Life With Diabetes”
• Connect feature, an online social networking platform that matches people with type one diabetes to other people with type one diabetes who are the same age, share common interests, and are in the same region. You can access this feature and create an account to start connecting with people like you by clicking the green “Join Our Community” button on the top right corner of the page and bottom of the page.

Penpals United is committed to providing you with the safest platform possible. Our privacy facts are listed on this website and you can view them by clicking on “Privacy” on the top tab. We will do our best to monitor the site and ensure your safety. We will never share your information. You always control what information is visible to others and provided.

You can email contactus@penpalsunited.org with any questions.

The email that you received means that your child is under the age of 14 and would like to make a social media account on our site. This profile would allow them to share basic information about themselves to the friends that they connect with on this site, who they can find based on interests and relation to diabetes. They will also be able to message these friends on this site’s messaging feature. You must follow the instructions and link on the email that you received in order for your child to be able to access this connectivity feature.

You can join the community at this link: https://www.penpalsunited.org/register/

Penpals United provides basic information about type one diabetes, but for medical information, questions, advice, and treatment specific for you, you should ALWAYS contact your doctor and medical team.

When using social media, you should always:

• Be respectful
• Only divulge the information that you would share in person
• Monitor what information on your profile is on display for public and private viewing
• Continue to check your notifications and messages
• Engage with the people that you are talking to
• Report any suspicious or disrespectful behavior to the site admin