The 20th edition of Miss Earth, i.e., Miss Earth 2020 is going to be held on 29th November 2020 and for the first time in history, Miss Earth will crown their new titleholder with a virtual coronation night due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The winner will succeed Miss Earth 2019 Nellys Pimentel of Puerto Rico for the title.
Since the preliminary competitions have already begun at Miss Earth 2020, there are two countries who have debuted their participation at the competition and have received a lot of appreciation for their decision.
Meghna Alam was crowned as the new Miss Earth Bangladesh 2020 at the private coronation ceremony held on 5th October 2020 and became the first delegate from Bangladesh to represent the country at the competition. She is 26-years-old and stands 165 cm tall and is studying bachelor’s in business administration with scholarship at North South University of Bangladesh. She describes herself as a woman of the world who aspires to be a change maker in her community and wants her voice to be heard and foot prints to be implanted in the society. Meghna explained that her memories of spending time with her father as a kid consists of attending workshops, seminars, human chains for various environmental causes holding his hands from the age of 10. From that age, she started working as a translator to connect the farmers from various countries. While translating for others, she learnt to express, to acquire knowledge, and to connect with different kinds of people consciously.
Being born in a family with four daughters, she takes immense pride in stating that all four of them went to the most prestigious school in the country and where the society reminds you being weak because you don’t a brother, their knowledge became their weapon to fight back and she is so grateful for that. Her advocacy is to fight against climate change by reducing plastic production globally. The diva would actively engage herself in creating a digital platform for women to sell various recycled products targeting climate-conscious consumers. It would sensitize people about climate change while empowering women simultaneously. It is a process of looking for a solution while giving a voice to the women of our society. On asking about what makes her proud of her country, she stated, “the resilience of the people in my country. People of my country re-emerge, re-organize, and re-model it to find and practice the best climate adaptation practices. This is because Bangladesh is one of the most vulnerable countries to climate change, and it is prone to natural disasters like flooding, droughts, etc. even though their contribution to carbon emission and plastic production is negligible.” She would like to promote The Sundarbans, one of the largest mangrove forests in the world that saves Bangladesh from any harm like a guardian angel. It reduces the speed of wind during cyclones.
Another country that is debuting at Miss Earth 2020 this year is Syria represented by Tiya Alkerdi. Tiya was appointed as Miss Earth Syria 2020 on 2nd October 2020. She is 23-years-old and stands 169 cm tall and works as a professional model in Aleppo. She is excited to represent Syria for the first time at Miss Earth 2020 stage and feels that she can set a benchmark for the ladies that will follow her reign later. The diva is not new to pageantry as she was a part of Miss Arab 2017 and Miss Syria Elegance 2018 competitions.
Tiya wants to help orphans by creating events and bringing happiness on their faces and is working towards the same advocacy. She explains that one thing that she had to face while growing up was challenging the habits of her society when she started working as a professional model. She is very proud of the Syrian drama and actors who act in it. Tiya would like to promote eco-tourism in Syria along with her advocacy at the competition. She describes herself as cheerful, spontaneous, strong, and stubborn who believes in working hard for her dreams and making the people who believe in her proud and happy.
The divas have been performing extremely well at the competition especially keeping their debuts in mind, they have been emerging as strong contenders for the title. The people of their respective countries have expressed their happiness for the divas reaching an international platform. They are expected to secure high positions at the competition.