French social worker and Virlanie foundation Founder Dominique Lemay said there is no better time in the year to be giving presents to less fortunate people than during the holidays.
Virlanie is a private nonprofit organization created to help street children in the Philippines, and is currently keeping Lemay’s hands and heart full. Being in social work for over 30 years, Lemay has had experience dealing with kids and families living under the nitty gritty of the city streets.
More often than not, he has touched hands with those who received the bad end of the universe stick. Children engaged in drugs, crimes and delinquent behavior are right up in his ally.
But his heart holds a soft spot for the children with special needs. According to him, if the world has been unkind to some and has been crippled by poverty and social injustices, what more to those who literally cannot stand up for themselves.
“Those who touch my hearth the most are the special children. I remember the first time in 1992 or 1993, I was visiting a jail and I saw one child, that was Christmas day. I saw one child and other children were beating him up and I think why does he not say anything. I approached him and he was a special child and had autism,” Lemay said.
He added: “I take the child back in Virlanie. Imagine, they do not have any way to protect themselves, girl or boy. No people want to take care of them and adopt them because they cannot do anything. If you are a special child on the street, what more? What will happen to you? Many of them will die if we do not take them in.”
A home for children
Virlanie has two homes for children with special needs—the Jade Home in Cavite, housing 32 children with special needs and the Aime Home in Makati City with 25 kids.
According to Lemay, there needs to be a foundation of love and care in children for them to become good adults. He added that the goal of Virlanie is to expand its help to street families and give them some means of assistance in livelihood so that they can provide better for their children.
“It is my dream for one child to have one tatay and one nanay. That is important because for me it is important for the children to receive care and love and if you do not have parents to say I love you, you cannot become a good adult. There has to have some balance in your life,” Lemay said.
With this, Virlanie launched its Craft-A-Smile brand of hand-made products, like accessories and handbags, done by mothers and young adults. The program creates a platform for income for the beneficiaries.
Jail is not for children
Advocating strongly for programs that allow people to motivate and empower themselves, Lemay said he sees the need for more rehabilitation and renewal programs for drug and juvenile-delinquency program in the country, adding that lowering the bracket for child imprisonment will not solve anything.
“Virlanie is one of the foundations fighting the law that wants to lower from 15 to 9 the age a child will go to jail. Imagine, I saw children 9 years old, so small in jail. When the police questions them, they do not say anything. They do not know anything. You can easily put any blame on the child’s shoulders,” Lemay said.
He added: “To put them in jail will make them more delinquent because there is conditioning there. I said to myself you have to do something for the children in drug abuse, for those entering prostitution out of poverty.”
Recalling his time when he first landed in the Philippines, Lemay said there is hope for much change in street children because they are more respectful and they listen to their elders.
“The children here, they take my hand and do this,” he said, gesturing pagmamano. “I say where am I? In France, it is not like that.”
Priestly calling
Social work came in knocking second for Lemay who shared that his first inclination was toward serving God and leading the faithful to Mass.
“It was an unconscious dream for me and my parents for me to be a priest,” Lemay said. However, that desire was short-lived. The Frenchman said that despite not continuing the road to priesthood, he dedicated his life to helping others as a Christian.
“I was groomed to be a priest. I was very small, maybe 11 years old and until I was 22, I was in the seminary. At 23, I said to my superior, ‘Father, I think I love too much girls, to be a priest’,” Lemay said.
“But I continued to be Christian. It is one of key in my life. If I am here, it is because I try to follow the Gospel. And the Gospel said to love each other and to love the poor that is really the message of the Gospel,” he added. “Instead of being a priest, I, instead, gave my life to the poor people and that is the most important to me.”
Lemay also studied psychology and has a master’s degree in social work. His first brush with the Philippines was because of a study he had to do on street children. Seeing the condition in the country, Lemay decided to focus on creating more tangible impact through housing programs and other charitable activities for the poor.
He said his plans for Virlanie include making the foundation stronger in terms of management and financial capabilities, as well as to prepare its next generation members to handle the company.
Lemay said he wants the planned organic farm in Negros Occidental operational by 2017 to provide children and adults with special needs something to do that will make them happy and empowered.
At the end of the day, Lemay said it is giving people the right to “smile” by all means this holiday season and that includes even a mere visit.
“The story of Christmas is that Jesus came as a poor to poor people. It is really the time to be with them. A few years ago, I came to the Reception and Action Center in Manila, where a hundred people were spending Christmas. There were no lights. It was the evening of the 24th and I had very simple things with me, some donuts and juice. We asked to open the light and then an old woman came and started singing a Christmas song. I will never forget that moment— children and adults all singing together. It is good to share the money but being there it is better to share what can be multiplied, be it talent or inspiration,” Lemay shared.
Image credits: Jimbo Albano