MUNTINLUPA CITY, Philippines (UCAN) -- Jerome Mendoza used to feel "embarrassed" to pray and study when he was living on Manila's streets.

Father Antonio Molavin (third left) with some of the homeless youngsters staying in Tuloy sa Don Bosco (Welcome to Don Bosco) in Muntinlupa City, Philippines.

Tough kids he hung out with ridiculed fellow street dwellers who did "good things," he told UCA News at Tuloy sa Don Bosco (welcome to Don Bosco), a Salesian-run center in Muntinlupa City, south of Manila.

"Here we learn naturally what is good and learn ways of doing it," the 17-year-old computer-technology student said in late December.

He remembers keeping to himself when he first arrived at Tuloy with two younger brothers six years ago. However, "it is impossible to avoid people" here, he recalled, narrating how other residents, aged 9-18, approached him to make friends.

Tuloy has two dormitories for girls and six for boys, each built for 30 residents. Salesians of Don Bosco priests started the project in Don Bosco Parish in Makati City, southeast of Manila, in 1993. Later, in 2001, they established the Muntinlupa complex on 4.5 hectares of government land.

Tuloy's website expresses concern for homeless youngsters' constant exposure to "dangers and temptations" that could lead to crime.

In 2004, the Coalition to Stop Child Detention Through Restorative Justice recorded about 52,000 children aged 15 years or younger imprisoned in Philippine jails.

The NGO coalition of 26 human-rights groups listed begging, stealing, rape, murder, drug use, glue sniffing, and sleeping or hanging out on the streets among reasons for the arrest of children as young as 9. Some were even sent to adult jails.

Even with the Juvenile Justice and Welfare Act of 2006, the Social Welfare department estimates that at least 200,000 children live on streets in the Philippines today.

The law mandates the establishment and strengthening of local councils for children's protection, comprehensive juvenile intervention programs and welfare programs for youths in local communities.

In Tuloy, residents live like "brothers" and "sisters." They share chores, eat and pray together, and help each other with schoolwork under the guidance of a live-in house parent, a lay volunteer, explained Erica Mae Inocencio, 14.

The 200 residents also share their school and playground with about 300 other students from poor families living around the compound.

For Inocencio, the center is a place of healing as well as her home.

She said the psychologist at the center helped her "express [herself] freely," and she credited religion classes and the head of the house for "comforting and guiding" her.

Her parents separated, and her mother and 6-year-old sister now live in Binondo, Manila's Chinatown, where her mother is a live-in cook.

"I want to be a businesswoman and a football player," said Inocencio. If she attains her dreams, she plans to donate to struggling centers like Tuloy.

Salesian Father Antonio Molavin told UCA News the center, which relies on donations, has two dormitories vacant due to lack of funds. Staff salaries and food for students comprise the largest expenses, but top-level positions are filled by volunteers, which helps keep costs down, he said.

The priest recalled that the project started in Makati serving 12 street children, and the Muntinlupa campus began with 100 resident and 150 non-resident students.

One resident, Jhan Marie Orua, 16, says she has learned "good" things, such as curbing her use of swear words and forgiving her father for abandoning their family of five children. She was 6 when her mother, a laundrywoman, sent her to Tuloy from Nueva Ecija province, 90 kilometers north of Manila, where they lived.

Today, she hopes to do well in Tuloy's five-level informal education system and become a teacher for homeless young people. "A teacher is a creator, the beginner of all dreams," she told UCA News.

At Tuloy, students are assessed individually using Philippine education department standards. The center helps place graduates in on-the-job training positions. Personal and professional guidance continue after they find employment.

Besides classes, the students say they also learn things such as choir-singing, gardening and football in the two-hour "skill clubs" each day.

In February 2008, students performed with celebrities and benefactors at a hotel and raised 20 million pesos (US$423,000) for the center, Father Molavin said.

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