« Tulay ng Kabataan foundation » (A bridge for the children) is a local N.G.O. (non-governemental organisation).

       The foundation Tulay Ng Kabataan was created in 1998 by Father Jean-François Thomas, S.J. The foundation comes to the aid of the poorest children of the Philippine capital of Manila.

       The foundation Tulay Ng Kabataan initially developed two principal programs:
• the first program was situated in the heart of the shantytowns of Manila in order to provide a pre-school education to the children of the poorest families and to establish a nutrition program for the under nourished babies and young children.
• the second program covered the entire capital and focused on the growing problem of street children , to whom it offered a progressive program of rehabilitation and reinsertion toward an autonomous, self-supporting life.

       With these humble beginnings, the foundation established itself as a small organisation, this held true for the Street Children Program (3 homes & 1apprenticeship workshop) as well as for the Children of the Shantytowns Program (5 centers). Everything was organised; a job for the long term; never finished; but a job, that little by little, witnessed the opening of new centers (8 homes and 3 apprenticeship workshops for the Street Children Program and 8 centers for the Children of the Shantytowns Program).

       In December 2003, in order to battle an undeniable and unacceptable reality, the foundation decided to open a new program program to aid the children of the scavengers living among the central refuse dump of the capital.

       In 2004, the Street Children Program, that until that time could only accept boys, expanded to accept young girls as well (4 centers today).

       Finally, in 2005, a special home has opened its doors in order to provide the appropriate aid and care to the mentally handicapped street children.

       The solid work that is done on an every day basis in the field, in the streets, in the shantytowns and in the centers, allows us to continually listen to the needs and the distress of the streets and permits us to continuously adapt our actions to the ever evolving situation among the poor.

       Every project is scrupulously studied in function of the vital needs observed in the field but also in function of the financial resources needed to be found to support it. Thus, if new actions are planned, they will only see the light of day thanks to the financial support that we are able to gather.