Two Pinoys among Canada’s Top 25 Immigrants in 2015

Two Filipinos were voted into Canada's annual list of Top 25 Immigrants for inspiring fellow migrants with years of dedicated community service.

Ver Cruz and Maria Santos-Greaves were voted into the Canadian Immigrant's people's choice awards for their respective efforts in providing education and medical aid to both immigrants and locals.

Cruz established the Vercore Business Academy in April 1994 upon arriving in Canada with his wife to help fellow migrants develop skills necessary for proper employment.

"We provided skills such as business communication both in person and on the telephone, and office reception techniques among other soft skills," Cruz said.

Despite budgetary constraints for marketing and advertisement, his school have managed to help newcomers from Spain, Russia, Ukraine, Ethiopia, Poland, Italy, Brazil, Greek, Portuguese, Egypt, and the Philippines for over 21 years.

Meanwhile, Santos-Greaves worked as a dollar store clerk, education savings plan salesperson, and a call center agent in her first few years in Canada before becoming an audiometric technician at Fraser Health.

With enough experience and capital, the single mother was able to open three hearing aid clinics under her company, Surrey Hearing Care Inc., since 2009.

The clinics embody Santos-Greaves' dedication to "compassionate and quality care" through give free hearing testing through a mobile hearing clinic van all over the Lower Mainland, information lectures at community gatherings, home visits, and chauffeuring services to their patients.

“I do not lose sight of the fact that our services are [incomplete] if we only rely on technology and screening. With science we blend humanity, imparting warmth as we genuinely care for others and their hearing needs," she said.

Winners of the Top 25 Immigrants award will receive a commemorative certificate and may name any charity for a $500 donation by the Royal Bank of Canada. —Rie Takumi/KBK, GMA News

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