Anytime now, the race for the Miss Rwanda 2022 crown will begin. The beauty contest is arguably the most popular event on Rwanda’s social calendar, given the hype it gathers from the public. However, the public gives little attention to the pageant’s initiatives right after the crown winner is announced, leaving them with little knowledge about what the pageant offers to society. What is the importance of Miss Rwanda? What impact does it bring to society? These are some of the questions that always surround the pageant that has so far produced ten winners since 2009. A week ago, a ‘Miss Rwanda with Impact’ cocktail event was held for the purpose of bringing together different people to not only evaluate how impactful the beauty pageant has been over the years, but also brainstorm how it can bring a positive change to a bigger community moving forward. The event brought together different stakeholders varying from social media influencers, members of the media as well as primary (former contestants) and secondary beneficiaries (those impacted by the former contestants) of the projects inspired through the pageant. A series of testimonies from beauty queens who used the Miss Rwanda platforms to venture into life-changing initiatives, to members of the community whose life changed thanks to the pageant’s initiatives, lined up to change society. For instance, Teta Hense Musana says her life changed when her project won the ‘Most Innovative Project’ prize during the Miss Rwanda 2021 campaign, on top of being among the top 20 contestants who were offered a free university scholarship by University of Kigali. Upon winning the prize, Musana became the brand ambassador of Bank of Kigali where she earns a monthly salary of Rwf500, 000. On top of that, the bank pledged Rwf24 million to finance her winning project, besides giving her technical support to smoothly run it and turn it into a successful business that can generate employment for many people. Other former contestants who shared their experiences include Miss Rwanda 2015 third runner up, Fiona Muthoni Ntarindwa, who took advantage of the platform the pageant offers, as a way to build a successful career in journalism, where she currently works with CNBC Africa. Patience Iribagiza, who was among the top 15 in Miss Rwanda 2017, also says that the pageant has played a crucial role in successfully establishing her own non-profit organisation, Afro Ark, based on her project during the contest to help young mothers and girls facing stigma, especially in rural areas. Afro Ark’s initiatives are now contributing towards promoting gender equality, accessibility to Sexual Reproductive Health services and realisation of rights, and reduction of economic distress among women and girls through advocacy, capacity building and social support. Community-based projects A young woman’s journey does not end at winning Miss Rwanda. Their journey actually is supposed to start from the day she wins the crown to prove to Rwandans that she won it by merit by fighting to meet her promises to the community through her project. During their reign, beauty queens embark on implementing life-changing projects to benefit a certain number of people in the community. Mary Ahobantegeye is a grandmother to one of 11 children from Rubavu District benefiting from tuition fees provided by Miss Rwanda 2017, Elsa Iradukunda, as part of her initiative to help children from needy families have access to education. “My grandson was given the opportunity to go to school after his parents left him to me with no means to pay his school fees. It was a burden for me until she (Iradukunda) pledged to pay tuition fees for him,” says Ahobantegeye. On the other hand, Issa Kayonde had for years been in danger of losing sight until he benefited from the cataract surgery initiated by Miss Rwanda 2019 Meghan Nimwiza in partnership with Kabgayi Hospital’s eye department, in Muhanga District. “I was close to becoming blind but the surgery gave me a second chance to see. I can’t thank Nimwiza’s initiative enough,” says Kayonde. A number of beneficiaries commended Miss Rwanda’s continued efforts to not only empower young girls through the pageant, but also bring back hope to the communities through projects that change the life of beneficiaries. Miss Rwanda has been adding new prizes in the beauty contest to create more opportunities for the contestants. Meghan Nimwiza, Communications Director of Miss Rwanda Organisation, says that the organisation is focused on making the contest even better, edition after edition. “All we want is to see young women empowered through the pageant and we are doing all we can to ensure that more and more are benefiting from it. The same goes to the community because we want to see more people in the community benefiting from our initiatives,” says Nimwiza.
