It's a powerful and magical combination – beauty and leadership – and this is what sisters Catherine and Ella Bella Constantinides set out to achieve with Miss Earth SA. So much more than a beauty pageant, Miss Earth SA is a leadership program for young women, empowering them to take responsibility, be accountable and make a stand for sustainable stewardship of our earth. At last night's cocktail event at the Tsogo Sun, the 16 finalists were introduced in all their gorgeousness. Yes, the dresses were divine, the "power of the sash" in evidence, the mood glamorous and the venue splendid. But behind the glamour and glitz is a determination and will to combat destruction of the earth through the hard work they do; in the words of Ella Bella "to create ambassadors for the planet by empowering women through green education."
The element of competition is replaced by one of collaboration. As Catherine said in her speech "Girls compete, real women empower each other" and this message was re-inforced by the current Miss Earth Ashanti Mbanga who said of her "journey of sisterhood" that being the Face of Sustainability had helped her realise that once a Miss Earth, always a Miss Earth – that every young woman who had participated in the program was "already a winner" because of the impact she would have on nurturing the earth in her role as a Miss Earth finalist.
Miss Earth is certainly about beauty. But it's about finding the powerful inner beauty in nurturing the beauty of our earth. What better way to celebrate Women's day and Women's month.
EcoProducts is proud to be associated with Miss Earth and we were delighted to be invited to the event last night. Here, Nina Geraghty of Switched ON Media (our online media manager) and Jill Bysshe of NEO TRADING (our distributor) are seen with Ashanti Mbanga (who has already started using Baobab oil) along with Nombulelo Mfeka (director of City of CT tourism) and Derek Hanekom (Minister of tourism) and the finalists.
