The 70th edition of Miss World pageant, Miss World 2021, is set to be held on 16th December 2021 at the José Miguel Agrelot Coliseum in San Juan, Puerto Rico where Toni-Ann Singh of Jamaica will crown her successor at the end of the event finale. There was no pageant held in 2020 due to the rampant spread of Covid-19 across the world.
While almost all the delegates have finally arrived in the host country and have begun with the registration process for the competition, the Miss World organization has officially drawn groups for the Head to Head challenge of the 70th edition of the pageant.
The organization has recently begun with the group interviews for the challenge and the first interview that has been uploaded by the organization is of Group 16 including Ghana, Uganda, Cambodia, St. Maarten, Senegal and Haiti.
The round was hosted by Miss World 2019 Toni Ann Singh and Miss World 2016 Stephanie Del Valle. The stunning hosts introduced the challenge as they introduced the contestants, shared their presentation videos and asked questions and finally the contestants were asked questions at the end of the round.
As the divas introduced themselves and took the audience through their beautiful countries, sharing about their cultures, people and beliefs. They also shared their passions and Beauty with a Purpose projects. Towards the end of the round, the six divas were all randomly questioned by the hosts.
Going up first, Ghana was asked, “What is something that parents should teach their children?” Appreciating the question, Monique Agbedekpui responded, “Whenever I go live on social media, this is the topic I talk about and I’m happy you’ve given me this question. I’ll be glad if parents can talk to their children about teenage pregnancy, especially the ladies and how real it is because especially in Africa, our parents are so shy to even kiss in front of their kids so it makes it looks like e bad thing but the earlier you tell your girl how to protect herself or better off stay away, I think it saves most of us from teenage pregnancy and also to teach us to be proud of ourselves.”
Uganda’s Elizabeth Bagaya was asked about the biggest challenge that young girls face today, to which she answered, “I believe that it’s not only girls that suffer from this problem and that is my Beauty with Purpose that is mental health in children. In my country, where I come from and mostly in Africa, they perceive mental health as a taboo or you are bewitched. With children, it is even harder, because for a child it is hard for them to express themselves, so it’s up to the parents and the guardian to understand and be able to help the child. In my country, it is unfortunate that the children are being named after the streets they were picked from and this is because the parents are not able to take care of them. All of this is because parents are scared of the stigma of mental health and push their children away.”
Next up, Sophorn Phum of Cambodia was asked, “What advice would you give your younger self?” She shared, “I would like to say that, all of you as young people need to study hard to make your dream come true. Do not give up studying no matter how difficult you find it, you must try to continue because education gives each of us knowledge and the ability to be more thoughtful and the skill to analyze what is true. Please study hard to develop your brain.”
Moving on, St. Maarten was asked about what success means to her, to which Lara Mateo responded, “Success is different for everyone, I think the perspective of success is different for each person, because material and big houses is good and nice but personally, for me I already have success, so we can always look further but for now my success is being surrounded by love and people who love me for me I already have success, I also give a lot in return. I live on an island which is great. I am lucky enough to be there and to be here today which is a big success, to have Spanish blood in my veins, all of it really. To have a good job. I think success depends on each of us and today, for me, I have it all.”
Next in line, Senegal’s Penda Sy was asked, “What was the proudest moment of your life?” She answered, “I have two proudest moments in my life, first is when I got my professional degree in BBA and the second one is when I won Miss World Senega, again I am so proud to be here and thanks to my parents, my friends and everybody because it is because of them if I am here today.”
Last but not the least, Haiti’s Erlande Berger was asked, “What is your daily motto?” She shared, “I have an aunty who told my mother about me, that she was investing in something that wasn’t worth it. Every time I remember that sentence, I say to myself I need to accomplish wonderful things in life because I need to make my mother proud, this is what I have, what I can do. And thanks to that I tell myself that I need to get involved, do business, prove to people that I have a lot of capabilities and that I can accomplish big things in life, this is why even though it wasn’t easy, I had to fight to get there. As a Miss World contestant in Haiti, it wasn’t easy at all but every time I remember the sentence I remember that I must keep going and now I’m proud, my mother is proud, my friends also and I know that when people say mean things, I need to take it as a source of motivation, this is what I did and here I am.”
The divas from all over the world will move forward in the 15 groups drawn by the organization, where each group will have a winner and then two by two winners will compete with one another until one ultimate winner is determined through voting on the Miss World website, who will then get an automatic spot in the top for the final night. In this challenge, each of the ladies are being given the chance to speak about their passions and Beauty with a Purpose projects.