Empower Miss Rwanda to transform society

WHEN the Ministry of Sports and Culture announced the revival of Miss Rwanda beauty contest in 2009, many were excited by the news. The public expected nothing more than seeing the participation of young girls in transforming society through the prestigious contest which had gone in limbo for 17 years. I have seen beauty queens in other countries raising their national flags through humanitarian and development causes on both local and international platforms. Therefore, I have every reason to believe that the Miss Rwanda contest can be an important platform to boost national pride and eventually contribute to progress and development of our country. The 2009 contest came along with a number of issues which climaxed into the reigning beauty queen having an out of wedlock child before relinquishing the crown. Many came to her defence, given the fact she held the crown for nearly four years and had to move on with her life. The winner of the following pageant in 2010, Aurore Mutesi Kayibanda also had her reign blighted by challenges including a faulty car, which according to reliable sources spent more time in the garage than on the road during the better part of her two-year reign. It is also said that she never received any monthly allowances throughout her reign. And we all expected her to engage in various charity activities, among other high profile endeavours? How was she supposed to pull off this without any financial resources? Now comes the latest “untold story” of the reigning Miss Rwanda Colombe Akiwacu. Four months into her reign the nineteen-year-old is already frustrated and questioning why the country organises the pageant in the first place. Akiwacu confessed to this paper last week that the reign is all stressful and a difficult job. She says that if nothing is done about the conditions of the reigning beauty queen, many young girls could shun it the future. She says she doesn’t get help from the Ministry of Sports and Culture and her manager has been less helpful which has placed a huge financial burden on her shoulders to an extent that she has had to turn to her parents for support. Akiwacu has so far missed two contests, where she was meant to represent the country at different international beauty contests. What is so disturbing is to say that it is not possible to offer Miss Rwanda a monthly allowance because of the “tight budget”, really? Then why do we have to waste taxpayers’ money in staging a prestigious event that would not allow the eventual winner to fulfil her mandate? At the end of cat-walking, elegance, expression, and answering judges’ questions, we expect to see this young girl, go out, engage in campaign to help the vulnerable and impact on society. Imagine a young girl who had been entrusted with all those huge endeavours, is not supported, and she happens to meet Mr. Moneybags who is willing to help on ‘condition’, don’t you think she would give in to these conditions which may come with dire consequences for both the institution of Miss Rwanda and the beauty queen herself? God forbid! At the launch of the 2014 Miss Rwanda contest, Minister Protais Mitali said all measures were in place to ensure that Rwanda holds a beauty contest that meets international standards under the theme, My Beauty and Skills for Self-reliance. And now, this lady, (who must be between 18-25 years of age, according to the guiding requirements) has no job, has no allowances, her car is down and she is supposed to be self-reliant, would she make it? Mind you, as long as she holds the crown, she is not supposed to have a full time job. Please, it is my humble plea to the authorities to revise the benefits that come with the Miss Rwanda crown, or else our national beauty contest will never meet its objectives? The writer is a Journalist with The NewTimes.