Soweto day-care beauties need help
DAY-CARE centres in Soweto have already started getting ready for the 2018 edition of the Mr and Miss Little Soweto competition.
“What started out as us wanting to unite the different centres has turned into a full community event,” competition co-ordinator Oscar Mabuza said.
He said when he decided to start the contest with his friends Mthokozisi Valentino and Ntokozo Sibeko, their aim was to give back to the grannies who were taking care of the children in their township.
“It’s all about uniting the day-care centres. We realised a lot of them are not united in the sense they are not connected. Some are good at the education of children and others are good at running the business side of the centres.
“Others are still struggling to make ends meet. So it was important for us to come together as a unit and help each other and assist where we can.”
Mabuza said getting funding to help the centres was hard.
“Many of them are run by old ladies in the community and many of them don’t know anything about sponsors.
“So they will run the facilities from their homes, but will not be able to provide for more than a few children because they often use money out of their own pockets.”
He said as the youth they saw this struggle as an opportunity to do something to benefit the children and bring the different communities together.
“The beauty pageant started with only a few areas taking part. We also host a unity fun day where we call in some celebrities to play with the children and teach them a few things.”
He said through the pageant they were able to develop the children’s self-confidence and enhance their knowledge of arts and culture.
“What we do is get models to go to different centres and train the children for the final event that takes place later in the year,” Mabuza said.
According to Mabuza, last year’s event was a success, and was graced by participation of the reigning Miss Soweto Busisiwe Mmotla.
The reigning Miss Little Soweto, Keamogetswe Mashego, is from Protea Glen and Mr Little Soweto, Blessing Matlhola, is from Dobsonville.
“We have received an unprecedented number of entries this year and we want to accommodate everyone but we need funds to do so,” Mabuza said.
The first leg of the competition started last month with various volunteers going to the day-care centres to start training the youngsters on how to walk on stage and rehearsing for the talent segment of the competition.
“Our challenge is this: last year we received sponsors for vouchers to take children to the different facilities and experience things they have never before. But now this year, because of the influx of entries from even more centres, we are struggling.
“We need to transport the children in and around Soweto but we don’t have a sponsor for that at the moment. That’s our first biggest challenge.”
Mabuza said they received donations last year from the communities but that still wasn’t enough for them to have a fully fledged show and they had to then cut down on the entries.
“But everyone has been talking about it so much this year that it’s hard for us to turn anyone away.”
The team went from having five centres participate in the launch event to now taking up to 25 entries.
Last year the competition had titles for Mr and Miss Little Soweto, Miss Little Joy at Work and Miss Little Ubuntu. This year they are adding even more categories.
“The events leading up to the contest will start in August. We are going to do a Mr and Miss Community and get finalists from different areas, then on September 1 the main pageant will happen,” Mabuza said.
Anyone who wants to donate or help provide any of the needs can contact Mabuza on 0658381754 or e-mail him on lusionfilms@ gmail.com
The beauty contest helps the children develop self confidence