Despite trailing under not so impressive sponsorship from the corporate world, the 2016/17 Miss Malawi project is promising to bring back the lost glory of the top most beauty pageant in the country.
This observation was made at Sunbird Mount Soche in Blantyre on Friday where the Southern Region catwalked six representatives to the Miss Malawi finals in April.
The winners are Gladys Kumbatira, Nthanda Manduwi, Peggy Mwaunguku, Vanessa Chiutsi, Cecilia Khofi and Gloria Msindira.
While Atupele Singano and Tinna Mbeya were shown the exit door.
In random interviews judges, models, participants, observers and former Miss Malawi manager Carver Bhima hailed the project.
Chief judge Wilkins Mijiga advised all the Miss Malawi finalists to up their game to increase chances of grabbling the crown.
“We can confidently say that we are on the right track. We have a promising crop of finalists whose level of articulation and runway performances have tremendously improved,” said Mijiga.
Other judges were Lucy Nkhonjera and Thoko Mkawa.
The impressive turn out at the regional finals included families who came to cheer up the contestant. They also spoke volumes of the rebranded Miss Malawi.
The finalists commended the direction which Nation Publications Limited (NPL) and Zodiak Broadcasting Station (ZBS) have taken in managing the beauty pageantry.
According to spokesperson for Miss Malawi project Teresa Ndanga, Miss Malawi seeks to impact the nation by engaging the beauty queens in meaningful interventions and projects of national importance especially fight against ills of population boom.
Most models indicated that they were eager to work with the partners, including NPL and ZBS, in overcoming the country’s overpopulation by influencing behaviour change among sexuality active youths and policies surrounding the promotion of girls education, gender equality and women’s health, particularly in the area of sexual reproductive health rights (SRHR), family planning and promotion of male involvement in family planning.
“Population is one of the critical areas that determine the progress of any country. The more the people, the lesser resources they become.
“And as a demographer, I am interested to contribute to the development of the country by promoting the rights of girls and women to make informed health choices that impact on population,” said Manduwi, one of the contestants.
Kumbatira said the theme is critical in the sense that it strives to turn model into solutions to problems currently facing Malawi.
“It is very exciting to note that the country’s modelling industry has taken a new direction which seeks to field models in a position of influence in our society like managing the overpopulation,” said Kumbatira.
Former Miss Malawi manager Carver Bhima described beauty models as change agents in developing nations like Malawi.
“When we put them into the right use like what NPL and ZBS is doing, Malawi can never be the same because beauty models can bring about meaningful development in society,” said Bhima. n
