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.
