Hope contestants make Botswana proud
Nnasaretha Kgamanyane | Friday January 19, 2018 14:08
Hope Pageants provide an opportunity for women and children around the world to focus on using their talents to make an impact in their communities and to start living their own purpose-driven lives. Unlike other pageants, Hope International is not about appearances and glamour, but rather about community and character.
Peo Pule won Miss Hope International while a Form 5 student at St Joseph’s College and Selwana Motsemeng scooped the Miss Teen Hope International second princess title. The pair, together with other local Hope Pageant queens on other categories were competing against beauty queens from eight countries and different provinces in SA.
Hope International Pageants were divided in four categories namely Miss Teen Hope, Miss Hope, Mrs Hope International and Mrs Elite for over 40 married women. Pule also won Best Project Initiative, Geniality and Best Interview awards. In an interview with, Pule who was able to outshine her fellow contenders told Showbiz the pageant had been an eye opener. She said when she entered the competition she had no idea what it was all about.
“I used to think that pageantry was about fancy gifts. I learnt that it is about giving back to the community. I am glad that we were not only able to win the pageant but also will be able to continue giving back to our communities through different projects we have in place. I will continue my epilepsy project. I intend to create the epilepsy project in South Africa and Namibia. I also have other projects on the pipeline,” she said.
For her part, Motsemeng who also scooped Best Interview award said the pageant made her realise that when a person gives people hope it gives him or her hope. “I have also realised that we have to give other people some love. Give food to the needy; spend some time with orphans and abandoned children. Through this pageant I have realised that nothing can be done without hope and compliments,” she emphasised.
The pair was sponsored by GIPS, Town Lodge, The Tutors Clinic and Arts Enterprises, who made sure that the young women make it to the international pageantry and achieve their dreams.
like in Botswana is difficult for one to eke out a living from poetry. He said most poets resort to other professions to survive.
As a black activist he believes that slavery and discrimination against people of colour still exist. “Slavery is alive and existing and it has been transferred into the prison system,” he said.
With Donald Trump recently labelling African countries as “shithole”, Knowles was quick to lambast his President without fear, describing him as a “racially disturbed man”.
“He is a narcissistic European American who is doing what he was raised to do because of his skin colour, power and top seat.
“He is not concerned about poor people. Referring to the global population and land of my ancestors as ‘shithole’ countries is really a sad thing.
“We do not feel safe in placing our faith in this man. He does not represent the majority of America and we do not stand with him,” Knowles said.
Knowles has been in the country for a number of weeks on vacation, stating that he has been taking his time to rest and write his new book that is dedicated to his little granddaughter.