Why I entered Miss Hope South Africa…
by SIBA QUMA, PROJECT LIASON, AFRICAN SUNRISE VOLUNTEERING
After having many conversations I thought it was important to write about this. Someone asked me what was about this particular pageant made me enter, they added that considering that I am a women’s rights activist they would imagine a beauty pageant as the last thing that I would enter.
I am against the mentality that women/girls are just beautiful beings that should be paraded and have their beauty used for entertainment of some sort. Which is why I don’t really understand beauty pageants that crown based on beauty, body and dress code; I am not really sure what the purpose of this is actually. If fact I am against a system that belittles some women because they do not subscribe to worldly standards of beauty, I support systems with substance which give women a voice to speak, coexist and be respected.
Miss Hope or should I rather say “Hope Pageants” uses the concept of beauty pageants as a platform to spread hope. What I mean by this is at Hope Pageants 50% of the scoring comes from community initiatives, some comes from publics peaking, fundraising initiative and the remainder for effort put in evening and sportswear. It is so inspiring being around a bunch of people who are all spreading hope in their communities through different initiatives and how everyone sees their project as important. There is a spirit of family hood rather than model rivalry, a spirit of let’s make a difference together and sharing ideas to develop each other’s projects. Hope pageants provides a platform for people to find their purpose and develop within it. Which is why when someone said to me “oh so basically beauty with a purpose” I wasn’t really convinced or rather happy with the term I would just say Hope Pageants is about living purposefully.
I was crowned Miss Hope South Africa second princess and will taking part in the internationals as Miss Hope Cape Town. My project that I have been working on is called “Give the girls a voice”; this project seeks to remove any barriers that could prevent girls from reaching their destiny. The project consists of workshops which work on self awareness, identity, understanding society, public speaking skills and community mobilisation. This project is at the core of my heart, I aim to raise girl agents of change within the forgotten societies. Alongside this I do sanitary pad drives to ensure girls don’t have to miss school when they are on their periods.
So in a simple sentence, I entered Miss Hope South Africa to get a platform to extend my project of hope as well as to attract more people who share the same passion to join me on this journey of spreading hope.
After having many conversations I thought it was important to write about this. Someone asked me what was about this particular pageant made me enter, they added that considering that I am a women’s rights activist they would imagine a beauty pageant as the last thing that I would enter.
I am against the mentality that women/girls are just beautiful beings that should be paraded and have their beauty used for entertainment of some sort. Which is why I don’t really understand beauty pageants that crown based on beauty, body and dress code; I am not really sure what the purpose of this is actually. If fact I am against a system that belittles some women because they do not subscribe to worldly standards of beauty, I support systems with substance which give women a voice to speak, coexist and be respected.
Miss Hope or should I rather say “Hope Pageants” uses the concept of beauty pageants as a platform to spread hope. What I mean by this is at Hope Pageants 50% of the scoring comes from community initiatives, some comes from publics peaking, fundraising initiative and the remainder for effort put in evening and sportswear. It is so inspiring being around a bunch of people who are all spreading hope in their communities through different initiatives and how everyone sees their project as important. There is a spirit of family hood rather than model rivalry, a spirit of let’s make a difference together and sharing ideas to develop each other’s projects. Hope pageants provides a platform for people to find their purpose and develop within it. Which is why when someone said to me “oh so basically beauty with a purpose” I wasn’t really convinced or rather happy with the term I would just say Hope Pageants is about living purposefully.
I was crowned Miss Hope South Africa second princess and will taking part in the internationals as Miss Hope Cape Town. My project that I have been working on is called “Give the girls a voice”; this project seeks to remove any barriers that could prevent girls from reaching their destiny. The project consists of workshops which work on self awareness, identity, understanding society, public speaking skills and community mobilisation. This project is at the core of my heart, I aim to raise girl agents of change within the forgotten societies. Alongside this I do sanitary pad drives to ensure girls don’t have to miss school when they are on their periods.
So in a simple sentence, I entered Miss Hope South Africa to get a platform to extend my project of hope as well as to attract more people who share the same passion to join me on this journey of spreading hope.
