Little Miss International broadens search
Nnasaretha Kgamanyane | Friday March 6, 2020 16:12
The pageantry extended its age categories reaching aspiring queens from other parts of the country.
In an interview with the event’s director, Kefentse Gokganwang said previously, they were not able to reach out to more people and other areas. She noted that they only had girls from one category between the ages of eight and 12 years. This year, the organisers successfully extended pageantry to all other age categories.
“This year we managed to conduct auditions in Maun. We reached out to participants in Francistown even though we didn’t manage to have auditions. We are looking forward to adding more towns, cities and villages so that we can select the best contestant to represent Botswana abroad. We promise that next year we will be able to reach their respective areas because it is our intention to groom talent from all over the country,” she said.
Gokganwang further explained that that pageantry was an international children’s and teen’s festival established in 2000 in Thailand. It aims to promote talent and culture amongst children across the globe. She added that the festival was open to all girls and boys between four to 19 years.
She further stated that this year they failed to scout for boys due to interest issues, as many boys were not interested in joining the pageant. The situation led them to reduce the scope when hosting auditions and split the categories separating boys from girls. This year, the pageantry has mini-Miss International (four to seven years old), Little Miss International (eight to 11 years old), Pre-Teen Miss International (12-15 years) and Teen Miss International Botswana (16 to 19 years).
“We will be judging the girls on talent, walk, poise and interview. We also have awards that will be given out at the grand finale which are as follows; Miss Photogenic award, pageant vote where the contestant with many votes will be awarded and announced at the grand finale. We will further have Miss Publicity award given to the best individual in selling tickets. Another award is the debutant award that will be given to one contestant who raises more funds through donation forms and Best Talent awarded per category looking at the girls stage performance,” she said.
She said all the awards were meant to motivate contestants by making them aware that even if they didn’t scoop the titles they had some talents. She explained that would inspire them to keep pushing and reach their goals so day.
The winners will participate at the 19th edition for Prince and Princess International, which will be held between November 12 to18, 2020 at Chiang Mai in Thailand. They will compete against more than 100 children from 15 countries from across the world.
The pageantry will be held at Westwood International School in Gaborone on May 2, 2020 from 2pm to 6pm.
Tickets go for P250 each.