By Manny Piñol
Corazon Laraya was born to a very poor family in a remote village in the town of Norala, South Cotabato but she worked hard to get an education.
Gifted with the talent to effectively communicate using the English language, she travelled to several countries around the world to work as caregiver to rich families.
Then, one day in Canada, 12,000 kilometres away from her land of birth, she met and married a rich Canadian businessman, Rod Coutts, and together they lived happily (and prosperously) until today.
The girl from Norala is no longer called Cora. She is now Corie Coutts and she no longer lives in a small hut like she used back in her hometown but in a palatial home in the suburbs of Toronto in Canada.
But even with a new nickname, family name and a new country to call her home, her love for her poor relatives and her birth place has remained constant.
She and her husband went home to Norala at least four times and tried to start agricultural projects to help her relatives and town mates.
She and Rod bought huge tractors for a pineapple growing project but this was apparently mismanaged.
Corie is not giving up though.
When I, Cabinet Deputy Secretary Pete Laviña and M’lang Vice Mayor Lito Piñol visited Toronto last week to participate in a Trade and Agriculture Forum she organised to open up new markets for Philippine products, Corie said that she is now involved in a new project which would use the lowly Kapok tree (Ceiba Tree in the Mayan culture) as the source of the materials.
Corie has designed an oil-absorber sponge made out of the cotton-like fiber found in the fruits of the Kapok Tree. This is the same cotton-like material used in making pillows in the Philippines.
Disposing of used oil in cooking is a big problem in Western kitchens, especially during winter, because it results in the clogging of the drains in the kitchen.
Corie has designed a sponge which effectively absorbs every oil in the pan after which it could be disposed of in the garbage and made into recyclable materials.
She needs a lot of Kapok so she requested the Dept. of Agriculture to promote the planting of Kapok in the Philippines because she said not only would it provide income to poor families in the countryside in the Philippines but it would also contribute to the reforestation program of the country and to the success of the administration of President Duterte.
Last Friday, Corie Coutts and I signed a Memorandum of Understanding witnessed by Philippine Ambassador to Canada Petronila Garcia for a Kapok Tree Growing program in the country.
The MOU states that Corie Coutts would teach women in the remote villages of the country how to make the Kapok oil-absorbing sponge which she will buy and market to Canada and the U>S>
By promoting the planting of the Kapok Tree, Corie hopes to lift many rural families in the Philippines out of poverty.
She dreams that girls from these poor families may be able to go to school and find their own fortune in the world and maybe marry a kind, generous and most of all rich husband like Rod Coutts.
(Photos show the Coutts couple with Deputy Cabinet Sec. Pete Laviña, Mlang Vice Mayor Lito Piñol and myself in front of their suburban Toronto home; the signing of the MOU witnessed by Amb. Garcia and Rod Coutts and the lowly Kapok tree downloaded from Google.)
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