Contestant advocates importance of education
Mereani Esther Tikoibure, 20, hopes to advocate the importance of education at this year’s Vodafone Millennium Sinu Festival 2018.
The festival will start on Saturday with the crowning on August 4 at the Valelevu grounds. Ms Tikoibure, who hails from Naqaidamu in Koro with maternal links to Raviravi in Matuku, said education was important. “My message is the importance of education. A lot of youths today have dropped out of school because of various situations and other reasons. A lot of youths dropped out in secondary level of education,” she said. “My message is basically to remind them that education is important not only for the short term, but it’s for the long run. “We live in a competitive world where everything is costly and one should be educated to get paid and run a family.” Ms Tikoibure said she was motivated by a friend to join the festival as a queen contestant. “My best friend motivated me to join this contest as she was part of the Hibiscus teen contestant few years back so she encouraged me to try out and see for myself the experience the pageant journey,” she said. “No one in my family has been into this type of contest, which makes me the first in my family.
“I joined this carnival because for the first time in my life I wanted to try something new for myself that I may gain selfconfidence and also to just see and feel how it is like to be in a pageant.”
Ms Tikoibure is studying for a trade diploma in Agroforestry at the Fiji National University.
She lists her hobbies as playing netball and catching up with her peers.
Her advice to young people is to broaden their knowledge and give back to their parents.
“I joined this carnival because for the first time in my life I wanted to try something new for myself that I may gain self-confidence”