Who do we serve?
Bahay Tuluyan exists to serve and protect children. Generally, all children are welcome to avail of the programs and services of Bahay Tuluyan without discrimination, subject to the availability of funds.
Bahay Tuluyan serves children and young adults, both male and female. In the residential shelters of Bahay Tuluyan, clients aged between 4 and 18 years of age are accommodated, with some exceptions on a case by case basis. The other programs and services of Bahay Tuluyan serve children and young adults up to the age of 25. The organization serves children from all over the Philippines including Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao, regardless of linguistic, religious or ethnic origin.
The children served by Bahay Tuluyan, broadly categorized as ‘children in need of special protection’ fall into the following sub-categories:
- street children
- sexually abused
- physically abused
- psychologically abused
- exploited
- maltreated
- neglected
- abandoned
- orphaned
- working children
- children in conflict with the law
- prostituted children
- trafficked children
- children whose rights are at risk of being abused
Bahay Tuluyan was originally established in 1987 to serve the street children who flooded to the red light districts in the Malate area after the Marcos regime ended. Since the founding of Bahay Tuluyan, the situation of children in the Malate area and in the Philippines has changed significantly. In this time, the definition of street child has also changed and can include children who spend some of their time working or playing on the street but return to their houses to sleep. In fact, the percentage of street children who spend all of their time on the street is relatively small. Issues such as child labor, trafficking, prostitution, abuse and exploitation currently affect many children regardless of whether or not they are classified as street children.
As a result of these changes in the situation of children generally, the clientele of Bahay Tuluyan has also changed. While formerly many of the children served were living and/or working on the street, now there are also many children who are referred to the organization from their families or communities. Today the programs and services of Bahay Tuluyan have evolved to serve not only street children but all children in need of protection.
