Samaritana began as an informal group of women friends sharing an apartment together along with their other friends…praying, visiting and befriending women in the bars of Manila in the late 1980’s, offering occasional hospitality in their home, and assisting several to go home to the province. In 1991, five of them began to meet more intentionally to pray, study what the Bible says about reaching out to women outcasts, and share the vision to churches in Quezon City.

Encouraged by the response of churches to their vision, the group formally organized Samaritana Transformation Ministries as a religious non-government organization in 1992. A drop-in center in 1994 later evolved into the Samaritana training center that now houses alternative livelihood, training and spiritual formation activities.  Through the years, Samaritana staff and volunteers have befriended prostituted women in Metro Manila, offering various services and alternatives to help these women in transition out of prostitution.