Tuloy Foundation

Tuloy is a life-transforming experience. Street kids, volunteers, teachers, benefactors, even Fr. Rocky himself who founded Tuloy all have their little stories to tell. We'll start with a few, like...

• Now a Jaguar Specialist in Kuwait
• Has She Lost Her Mind?
• Growing Greens
• Like a Military Cadets’ Dorm
• Tuloy in His Blood
• Life Lessons from Football

If you have visited or joined an activity in Tuloy or made friends with one of our kids, or you are one of the Tuloy kids, write your own story about how Tuloy has changed you. Send your story (maximum 20 sentences) and at least two pictures to storiestransform@tuloyfoundation.org.

Meynard fished and scraped copra to help his mother feed five children in the family. He could see no future because there simply was none. Completing the Automotive Mechanic skills program in Tuloy opened up opportunities that changed his life. He is now an all -around technician for Jaguar cars in Kuwait. His mother can now rest from her daily grind.

Those who know her thought she had lost her sanity. Sixteen years ago, she gave up a prestigious position and title in a big banking conglomerate, left her Makati condo for a small room in the village, traded mall shops for Divisoria, and downscaled her life from posh to simple. For many years, she was head of house caring for about 25 children. She is Tuloy’s purser who makes sure that all the children’s needs are purchased on time and at the best prices, that the steel bars down to the nuts and bolts for a building under construction are available when needed, and that all eight social workers, 20 teachers, and 40 other personnel needed to run Tuloy get paid on time. She is but one of Tuloy’s many angels spending some of the best years of their lives toiling for the children. Still, she says she receives more than she gives.

Used to filth and garbage, Fernando cared nothing about the environment. In Tuloy, he is part of a team that turns the village’s waste into compost for their vegetable and flower gardens. He is proud of the beautiful leafy greens produced in their gardens. He even enjoys having them in his salad for dinner.

600 kids and youth fill the Tuloy village most days of the week. Many of them have known no rules or laws, or the values of cleanliness and respect of property. Yet in Tuloy, they do not litter, they help clean every place in the village. There has never been graffiti on the walls. The bedrooms where 30 kids have their individual beds and personal cabinets can compete with a military cadets’ dorm in cleanliness and orderliness.

Who would ever think that Tuloy’s Founder, Fr. Rocky Evangelista, SDB once abhorred being around so-called “street urchins”? For 17 years, he had been given assignments as Rector, Principal, President of Don Bosco schools, and Parish Priest of the St. John Bosco parish in Makati City. His clientele were the schooled and the affluent. In one inexplicable moment, he found himself volunteering to spearhead the Salesians’ street children program. He knew nothing about working with the poor; all he knew was that God was calling him. He started with 12 children in 1993; now he cares for 650. He calls himself a professional beggar for God’s poorest of the poor. The Tuloy Streetchildren Village is his dream come true. On his 25th year as a priest, he asked his congregation, in lieu of the traditional gift of a trip to Rome or the Holy Land, to permanently assign him to Tuloy. His wish was granted. Tuloy is God’s work, he says, and it is where his calling as a Salesian priest has found fulfillment. He could not be happier.

Erica Mae, 16, was skipper of the Philippine Team that played in the first Deloitte Street Child World Cup in Durban, South Africa. The team lost to UK and Tanzania but won against Brazil, Ukraine and South Africa to bring home the Shield Trophy. Erica looks back at this experience with pride and can only thank Tuloy for introducing her to the sport. She is passionate about football. It is a sport that has taught her discipline, promptness, teamwork. Football challenged her to study harder because failing grades in Tuloy would mean suspension from the football club. In March 2010, Erica graduated from Basic Education class valedictorian. When classes resume in June, she will be one of Tuloy’s first Culinary Art students. Her dream? To obtain a degree in Mass Commmunications and work for a brighter future. She knows she can do it. “Never lose hope,” Erica says. “Be strong and put God in everything that you do. Believe that He loves you.”