Tuloy sa Don Bosco Foundation keeps fulfilling dreams

MANILA, Philippines -- The Tuloy sa Don Bosco Foundation started with a dream -- literally.

Some three decades ago, Fr. Rocky Evangelista, who founded the Tuloy Foundation in Muntinlupa City, had a dream.

Evangelista said he dreamed that he would take care of abandoned children. He started off with just 12 kids in 1993.

Now, he has housed more than a thousand children, with a majority now working both here and abroad.

“I just had a dream that I would give children who are down on their luck the best opportunity,” Evangelista told reporters in Filipino.

“For us here, children, even if they are poor, they are still people. You cannot say that if they are poor, they are limited in their dreams. No. Anything is possible, you just have to give them the opportunities,” he added.

Among the children in Tuloy are football rising stars Isabella Bandoja and Harry Nunez.

The two have competed in high-profile leagues. Nunez has played in the senior Philippine football team, while Bandoja was called up to the Filipinas camp earlier this year.

Bandoja said that before, the football team of Tuloy was just limited to boys. He waited for an opportunity to join the football team, and the next year, girls’ tryouts were held.

This was when his football career started.

“I will work hard on my fitness, my skills. More to improve on my skills so hopefully, I will be able to play on the higher level,” Bandoja said in a separate interview.

For his part, Nunez said he wants to have a successful football career abroad, and he seems to be on his way already.

He has represented the Philippines various times already in international competitions.

Evangelista voiced joy that some of the children who enter Tuloy Foundation are excelling in their respective fields.

“We are very happy and inspired. To think, Harry broke his leg [before,] and he did not give up. That is what we want to see. You will not give up as long as you have your dreams,” the priest said.

“He has a dream of being a football player, so he does not give up. So, we are teaching these children to dream. We are giving them the possibilities to meet that,” he added.

Now, more than three decades since the dream, Evangelista is