For guests and supporters to better understand and relate to the stories of the former street children in Virlanie, the foundation opened its doors last April 28, 2018 at the Tuloy Po Kayo!: A Virlanie Open House.
Forty visitors were welcomed and introduced to Virlanie during the event. The event meant to create a more meaningful relationship between the beneficiaries and the guests/donors.
“It was just pure fun, and the children were very excited. I think everyone had a great time,” expressed Nikko Salazar.
The highlight of the event is the visit to four homes, which include homes for babies, children, young adults and children with special needs. Among the participating homes are Babies and Toddlers Home, Marco Polo Care Center, Masaya Home, Tanglaw Home, Elizabeth Home, Ellah Yallah Home, and Aime Home. The guests also visited Magellan Learning Center.
In each home, Virlanie prepared different activities that they could participate in during the visit to deepen the bond between visitors and the children. Hand painting, Pinoy Henyo, story-telling, postcard making, charades, and puppet making were some of the fun and engaging exercises that were conducted during the Open House.
The Open House also served as an avenue to introduce what’s new with Virlanie. The newly produced Virlanie Video was exclusively displayed during the closing program. Moreover, the 2017 Annual Report of the foundation were distributed to the guests. The foundation also gave a heads up about their upcoming education and health campaign Give2Achieve and Operation Kalinga.
“It was very interesting getting to know the stories of these [former] street children,” said Ophelia Delsol who have come a long way from France to visit Virlanie and the Philippines.
