Every Individual Matters

To love, protect and empower the most vulnerable children and young adults and help them to reach their fullest potential as they reintegrate into Society through a sustainable and collaborative approach of the program.

We are a private, non-profit, non-governmental organization, was born as a project under Virlanie Foundation out of the need and desire to actively contribute to improving the lives of young adults with disabilities in 2016. The project evolved into Virlanie FAITH with the program acquiring a 2.3-hectares of agricultural and well-developed land in Bago City, December 2017, and the Open Day Center thereafter in January 2022, located in the heart of the city of Bacolod both in the Negros Island Philippines.

Virlanie FAITH is combination of best practices of “Virlanie” from Virlanie Foundation Inc. known as an organization that protects and empower children and young adults in street situation through its various innovative approach in education, health and social programs since 1992 in Luzon and in Negros; and the Faith Farm Project “FAITH” stands for “Food Always In The Home” that aims to create an agricultural community offering an environment conducive to the development of young adults with special needs, in a farm that follows the principles of organic agriculture and permaculture in 2017 both founded by Dominique Lemay a French social worker.

Today Virlanie FAITH has two programs in Negros Island catering to provide basic needs to the vulnerable children and young adults in street situation and those with special needs. Our goal is to support these individuals towards autonomous life though various activities in collaboration with stakeholders working within the child protection sector.

Our Founder

Virlanie Foundation, Inc. was founded in 1992 by a French social worker, Dominique Lemay and his Filipino social worker friends.

Dominique Lemay

Founder

In Paris, Dominique studied Theology in Montmagny Seminary, and Psychology and Sociology in Université Paris 13 and Institut Catholique de Paris, respectively. He obtained a Master‘s degree in Sociology in 1973, and a Master‘s degree in Social Work in 1987 from Fondation INFA, Nogent-sur-Marne.

Dominique first came to the Philippines in October 1987 to conduct research on street children. At the time, the country was beginning the work of rebuilding its economy, having collapsed financially and economically during the Marcos regime. The country was deeply in debt and millions lived below the poverty line. Touched by the plight of Manila‘s street children, Dominique, together with some Filipino social workers, established the Virlanie Foundation in June 1992. The name Virlanie is a contraction of the names of his daughters Virginie and Lauriane. Virlanie‘s close ties with the city government of Manila began when he reached out to them to provide support to the city‘s drop-in centers for street children, the Manila Youth Reception Center and the Reception and Action Center.

Among the many projects we implemented during the years, one is really dear to my heart: it is a project for special children of Virlanie. Because of their disabilities, these children won‘t have the same integration opportunities as the other young adults. Most of them will actually stay in Virlanie for the rest of the rest of their life.

However, this doesn‘t mean they cannot be given the chance of new beginnings. Thus, Virlanie acquired 2-hectare land near Bacolod City (Negros) in January 2018 in order to implement the FAITH Farm Project (FAITH: Food Always In The Home). This will be an organic farm in which around 30 special young adults living in Aime and Jade homes could be transferred permanently.

The goal is to allow them to have more autonomy in the community life, while leaving in a healthy spacious place. In the daily life of farm, it is expected that everyone will be given responsibilities according to their capacities.

Our Partners