March 4, 2016 Victoria Saffa
Miss Sierra Leone 2016 was Wednesday, 2 March, launched at the plush Radisson Blu Mammy Yoko Hotel, with the organisers announcing Le10 million prize money and a brand new car for the winner.
The 2016 edition of the annual beauty pageant show is scheduled to take place at the Bintumani Hotel in April.
While launching the 2016 edition, Project Officer at Office of First Lady, Mrs. Lillian Sesay thanked the organisers for their hard work, adding that the pageant show had helped to identify young and talented girls in the country and that the organisers need to maintain quality and dignity of contestants.
She said the First Lady supports the pageant show and would continue to give her support to the organisers. She admonished young girls wanting to be part of the competition to emulate the good example of Miss Sierra Leone 2014 by continuing their studies as education is the key that unlocks every door.
Giving a background to the event, board member Aminata Dumbuya said the first national beauty pageant show was held in 2002, with the winner unfortunately dying in a fire accident, adding that the event stalled until 2014.
Miss Margaret Murray emerged as winner in 2014. She embarked on several activities while holding the title of ‘Miss Sierra Leone 2014’. However, due to the outbreak of Ebola the event did not hold in 2015. With the Ebola now defeated and gone, Ms. Dumbuya said they are back to stage another ‘Miss Sierra Leone’ pageant show.
“Miss Sierra Leone was able to attend series of programmes and participated in a number of Ebola activities across the country. She visited the Commonwealth headquarters and was special guest at the ‘Miss Sierra Leone UK’. Miss Sierra Leone 2014 also supported the fight against Ebola and work with Street Child, which was her platform to see kids grow through support of the society,” said Ms. Dumbuya
She said the 2016 pageants would again be camped for seven days, while a regional pageant show would be used to select district queens for the grand finale, schedule for April.
Miss Sierra Leone 2014 said she was eager to relinquish her crown to the next winner by April this year. “I am very proud to have represented and served my country in my capacity as Miss Sierra Leone. It was indeed an opportunity and well deserved one, a position that exposes me to the outside world and to know my country better,” she said.
She maintained that the 2014 was well organised but that the 2016 edition would be better and called on Sierra Leoneans to support the event.
The organisers revealed sponsorship package of different kinds, ranging from platinum, diamond and gold sponsors. The exclusive package for the event sums up to Le250,000, followed by Le150,000 and Le100,000.
“Sponsors of the event will be advertised on the event brochure, they will also be opportune to speak on stage on that day of the grand final. The winner will go home with brand new car and ten million Leones,” said the organisers.