Beauty Redefined
Beauty is shown in different natures and forms which makes everyone unique. This is shown with the current reigning Miss Albinism Zimbabwe 2019-2020 queen who is also the present reigning of Miss University of Zimbabwe who is a lady with Albinism, Miss Ayanda Candice. However while we are celebrating Candice’s achievements we would also like to investigate how the Mr & Miss Albinism Initiative came about. We thus interacted with the brains behind the initiative, Ms Brenda Mudzimu.
Ms Mudzimu is a person with ablinism herself. Having grown up in a society that really did not understand or accept her as she was, Brenda naturally lacked self confidence and had poor self-esteem. However, the turning point came in her life when she participated in a beauty pageant and won the title of queen. She highlighted that the said pageant took place during her younger years as a student at Danhiko Intergrated School in Msasa. She became a totally different person who became more confident and gained greater self-esteem.
After High School Brenda pursued a career in the medical profession. She is a qualified registered nurse by profession. After qualifying as a nurse Ms Mudzimu realised that there was so much that needed to be done to raise awareness about the natural talents and beauty inherent in persons with albinism hence Mr & Miss Albinism was born. It has not been an easy road for Brenda, she speaks of the challenges, she encountered through her journey of being the founder of Mr & Miss Albinism Pegeant. She highlighted how contestants would first appear shy and with low confidence. However through mentoring and training during the modeling boot camp most participants tended to improve on their self-esteem and confidence.
Evidence of realisation of the pegeant’s main objectives are being seen through people with albinism becoming more active members of society. For example Miss University of Zimbabwe 2020 being a person with Albinism Miss Ayanda Candice. Miss Albinism Zimbabwe 2018 Sithembiso Mutukura won the 2018 Zimbabwe models award. Sithembiso and Miss personality Jennifer traveveled to South Africa during the International Social Day of Justice. Jennifer was also crowned the Mr and Miss Albinism Botswana, 2019-2020 2nd princess.
Ms Mudzimu, as founder of the Mr and Miss Albinism initiative pointed out that society must learn to tolerate human diversity which God created because tolerance in mindful capacity to love, respect and accept the difference that makes people unique.