An artist I know and everyone knows, I grew up with her in the industry. And of all that she went through, one was her inspiration to give hope to others. Actress, host, singer, teen star - that's how we met Antoinette Taus since the beginning of her colorful showbiz career, but in real life,showbiz is different from it. There is not always a happy ending. The loss of her mother was a tragedy that brought many changes to her life. Welcome to Amazing Earth, Antoinette. How are you? How many years have you lived in America? Yes, thank you so much for having me. I actually lived in the States for almost 15 years. 15 years. In between of those years, I’ve been coming back to Philippines for a long time. When my mother got sick, we had more reason to stay there longer. And I feel like it’s been a way to depression for a very long time since mom disappeared. But I can say that in those years, I call them my "glory days." Because I believe that when we go through a lot, we also learn a lot, and I always try to tell people that pain, these are things that we can hold on to become stronger, we can use it as a power and turn it into purpose somehow. The creation of CORA is a huge thing, isn’t it? That you mentioned your mom. Why is it your turning point and can you tell us more about it? 10 years after my mom passed away, there are a lot of phases. When I’m dealing with depression or any mental health issue, anxiety, stress. It really came to the point where I questioned my existence. It seems like I love to sing, I love arts, acting, doing different things with my friends, with my family, but even when I'm with them, or I do those things that I used to love, that I enjoy doing. Like every day, I can't explain it. That feeling is empty. It's like I'm blaming myself. If you were to lose your loved one in life, that's just normal for everyone, then why would you do it to yourself. More things are happening in the world. But of course that's not something we ever emphasize. When you have a feeling, it's real, it's true, it's valid. But that made me think about what's happening else in the world. The homeless, the foodless, the victims abused, oppressed and [having] injustice. So I was thinking to myself if it was me, that's my struggles, what more would they be. What more all these people around the world are going through. That's why we call it CORA because my mother seems like she was always someone who wasn't necessarily an environmentalist but she just embodied so much love. Love for everyone around her and wanting to do good to you Alright, can you describe your mom to us? My mother, we called her CORA because I just wanted to call her that way in honor of her. Though I thought a lot about it. I thought back then, Corazon. Because Corazon is the only real name she has. But we decided to go with CORA which is funny, because she didn't even like her name before. We, in turn, love her name, of course and we love her. And the reason we wanted to that is because she was really an inspiration and a hero and she embodied love, love for everyone around her. Whatever happens, help those you want to help. God will help you, if you have help others too. There are always ways to help people; those things kept in my mind. And the reason why I miss her so much, I guess, I can't explain it because it's just a combination of everything but the reason we called it communities organized for resource allocation, so that's what she means. Oh, so there’s a meaning? To have its meaning, it really truly means what the words which are resources allocated to better purposes; and communities coming together and these resources can be recyclable, it can be trash, it can be food waste, it can be programs, it can be volunteers period in the people, and of course allocation, making sure that we try to allocate them to the right places that we help the most important issue we need to discuss and come up with a solution. So what is the mission of CORA as an organization? We just want to serve the people and the things that are helpful in terms of helping people and the planet but empowering everyone, every single citizen. As we all believe, we can all be a part of change, because sometimes we feel that the government or the big businesses or experts, or scientists, can make a difference. But In reality, we can really make a change. We want programs that are sustainable, that we can all say can be part of the solution. And most importantly, we educate the youth. Antoinette has a heart for the children, our poor fellow countrymen and her new pet project. She’ll tell about it later. She previously told of her transformation from being an actress to humanitarian advocate. So we talked about that advocacy, what are the main pillars of CORA? So of course, first and foremost, volunteerism, which we need, in the Philippines, we call heroism. Second, our humanitarian projects, mainly the feeding program. This is the first project you’ve done. Feeding program within six months and within a year, we had environmental projects. We said, “Oh, how is that, we're not scientists. What do we do for the environment, all we know, we love the beach, we love going to the mountains and forest, we love animals, and we love nature. So the UN environment of CLEANSEAS educate us all about plastic pollution, waste, and I just read it online. I started researching and reading work and I always tell people that we don't have to wait to learn because of all the information, it’s already available. We can read it and learn it and we can do something now. But for us, it's simple. We started by picking up trash. That's because we only collected garbage until now, it was full blown coastal clean ups, and then we have the support of amazing people just Angie King who really brought so much awareness, because I feel more than anything, it's more important to know the truth. We still have a lot of work to do to help. CORA starts with coastal clean ups, we also have tree planting programs that we are really going to push this coming 2020 with reforestation in parts of the Philippines, most especially rainforest in mangroves, every single problem of the world, easier said than done but love, first and foremost. And of course, everything with a greater purpose for the people of the planet. Toni, thank you for sharing your insights, for sure you have been an inspiration. So for us here at Amazing Earth, you are an amazing earth hero. Thank you so much.
