In an interview with Arts & Culture, the pageantry director Vanessa Leepo said the idea is to develop and unite African countries through pageantry to exchange culture, skills and knowledge.
She said they have currently opened Online registration for the pageant semi finals billed for August 27, at D'villa Rest Inn in Block 10, Gaborone. In order to be registered, aspiring queens are expected to send full names, current location, hometown or village names, hobbies and one full body photo to their Facebook page.
The pageantry is open for all females aged from five to 35 years. It will be divided into four groups namely: kids aging between five to 12 years, teen aging from 13 to 19 years old, junior adults aging from 20 to 27 years and adults from 28 to 35 years old categories. Leepo explained that the pageantry is open to all females of all body sizes and height.
She also pointed out that the pageantry also open for women with children.
“Our pageantry has three competition levels namely the online auditions, semi finales and the grand finale that would determine our queen. We will also be giving certificates to all the ladies and girls that made it to the semi finale.
The overall winners for all categories will be representing Botswana at the international pageantry that will be held in Botswana on February next year,” she said.
Furthermore, Leepo said their contestants selected for the semi finals were working on different community projects aimed at giving back to the society. She also explained that Miss Gem Africa pageantry created international exposure, pageant experience, opportunities to work and indulge with different industries, gain knowledge on entrepreneurship and talent through various activities and workshops.
The winners and their runner ups will walk away with goodies, workshop modeling training Rare Dime Dance and Modeling Agency, certificates and many more for the queens. Moreover, Leepo stated that organizing a beauty pageant during COVID-19 era was ensuring that all protocols were followed and ensuring that everyone was not put at risk was hectic.
She added that getting sponsorships was hard since companies were also badly affected by COVID-19 saying many could not give out their monies and even products. She also added that they were still open for sponsorships. Leepo also said since scammers were on the rampage, many people did not trust registering and paying online which made it hard to attract many people to register there, as many were hesitant and skeptical about it. She also said they wanted to host many pageants and allow the brand to grow.
