This is the first of the four-part series regarding advocacies of Big4 pageants so that fans can have an overview on what is the true meaning of advocacy when today, some are using it for the wrong purpose.
Wenxia Yu donated US$10, 000 for the Muktangan Project in India
Advocacy. An oft-repeated word in the world of pageantry. What is it? Is it even real and should we care about it? The truth is, advocacy is a johnny-come-lately in the pageant world but it has stolen a lot of hearts and attention. Consider this, women in swimsuit, answering questions in a ubiquitous manner, touring the world for fashion and more fashion by gracing in the covers of fashion magazines. Sounds superficial right? And vain. It simply perpetuates the usual notion of the detractors of beauty pageants.
By having an advocacy, beauty pageants find a reason to exist. It sends a message that despite all the “vanity” and “superficiality”, beauty pageants are not apathetic and has a genuine concern for what is happening around the world. Without an advocacy, a pageant is like a ship without a compass, a road that leads you to nowhere or a desert without an oasis. In short, a pageant without a valid advocacy is, to put it succinctly, useless.
Among, the Big4 Pageants, no other pageant can boast an intricate web of advocacy than Miss World. Every candidate is required to have a Beauty with a Purpose program and this is not just about as superficial as handing out cheap biscuits or some ego-boosting photoshoot in the destitute parts of the world. It is about the commitment of a candidate to make a difference in the world. And to make it truly genuine, Miss World is making the Beauty with a Purpose project a competition. Miss World confers an award to a project by a contestant that truly makes a difference.
Megan Young in Haiti. Advocacy is not just about handing out cheap biscuits, it is about raising funds that can truly make an impact to those who are in dire need of help
The winners of Miss World are perhaps the busiest when it comes to charity works. Miss World 2012 Wenxia Yu for example crisscrossed the world – in the Philippines, India, Haiti, USA and more – raising funds to help children, the elderly, the sick and the victims of natural calamities. Miss World 2013 Megan Young even risked her life – after a makeshift stage collapsed – just to make a difference among the Haitian children who suffered much from disasters. The current Miss World, Rolene Strauss of South Africa, has also became an exemplary beauty with a purpose. Just recently, she raised money for the adopt-a-school scheme for her native South Africa. She has been to India, Sri Lanka, the Philippines and USA raising funds for children in need and donating to hospitals.
What the Miss World winners and contestants are doing are not simple photo ops. A lot of things are going on behind the cameras and they do it with genuine concern. That is the essence of advocacy. Miss World is doing charity works not just for the sake of doing it. Helping out has became the guiding compass of the world’s oldest and arguably the most prestigious beauty pageant. And it makes a lot of difference and that is the reason why Julia Morley, the current head of Miss World, was bestowed with honors from her native United Kingdom and in India.
Truly, advocacy is an important part of a major international beauty pageant. It is not just on paper or a superficial thing. It is real. It made a difference in a world full of conflict, of disasters, of sorrows and of desperation.
Rolene Strauss with South Africa’s vice-president Cyril Ramaphosa. Rolene helped raise UK£350,000 for the Adopt-a-School foundation
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