Miss Ability Namibia seeks more sponsors
Pageant for women with disabilities
Eva Josaphat founded the pageant in 2016 to provide a platform for differently abled women to showcase their beauty.
Miss Ability Namibia, a pageant for women with disabilities, is looking for artists and sponsors for its second edition.
The show is set to take place in Ongwediva in the Oshana Region on 6 August.
The pageant was founded in 2016 by Eva Josaphat to provide a platform for differently abled women to showcase their beauty.
She had a dream of turning disabled women into beauty queens, with her passion for the cause starting at young age as she grew up spending a lot of time at the Oshakati State Hospital where her mother was a nurse.
The hospital had a ward for disabled people, and Josaphat speaks fondly about how she spent most of her time helping them out with chores.
An inclusive platform
“I then became part of the board for the Oshana para-athletes team, where I volunteered for more than10 years. One day I watched the para-athletes take part in a sporting event, and I looked at how beautiful Johanna Benson, Lahja Ishitile and others were.
“I thought of giving them a platform if they wished to be models at any point in their lives,” Josaphat said.
She hosted the first Miss Ability Namibia in 2019, which was - at the time - called Miss Ability Oshana. The event took a knock after the Covid-19 outbreak, but will be back on stage again this year, she said.
“I currently have the queen of Namibian rap, Lioness – who is also a medical doctor – as well as Vida, Namibia Wildlife Resorts, Coca-Cola and Letu Wear as some of my sponsors for the event,” she said.
Challenges
She said the project does not have enough funding yet, and when setting up, she needs to use special equipment because she is dealing with different kind of disabled people with special needs.
“At the end of it all, we just want to give an equal platform to women with disabilities in the beauty industry. To advocate for their rights, to prove a point to society that with disability, all is doable,” Josaphat said.
She is ecstatic about the project because it has grown from seven models to 14 finalists from all over Namibia.
“They now even have a face of the pageant, and ambassadors too. They have taken a step forward. Disability should not be treated in isolation. Disability does not mean inability,” the organiser stressed.
The show is set to take place in Ongwediva in the Oshana Region on 6 August.
The pageant was founded in 2016 by Eva Josaphat to provide a platform for differently abled women to showcase their beauty.
She had a dream of turning disabled women into beauty queens, with her passion for the cause starting at young age as she grew up spending a lot of time at the Oshakati State Hospital where her mother was a nurse.
The hospital had a ward for disabled people, and Josaphat speaks fondly about how she spent most of her time helping them out with chores.
An inclusive platform
“I then became part of the board for the Oshana para-athletes team, where I volunteered for more than10 years. One day I watched the para-athletes take part in a sporting event, and I looked at how beautiful Johanna Benson, Lahja Ishitile and others were.
“I thought of giving them a platform if they wished to be models at any point in their lives,” Josaphat said.
She hosted the first Miss Ability Namibia in 2019, which was - at the time - called Miss Ability Oshana. The event took a knock after the Covid-19 outbreak, but will be back on stage again this year, she said.
“I currently have the queen of Namibian rap, Lioness – who is also a medical doctor – as well as Vida, Namibia Wildlife Resorts, Coca-Cola and Letu Wear as some of my sponsors for the event,” she said.
Challenges
She said the project does not have enough funding yet, and when setting up, she needs to use special equipment because she is dealing with different kind of disabled people with special needs.
“At the end of it all, we just want to give an equal platform to women with disabilities in the beauty industry. To advocate for their rights, to prove a point to society that with disability, all is doable,” Josaphat said.
She is ecstatic about the project because it has grown from seven models to 14 finalists from all over Namibia.
“They now even have a face of the pageant, and ambassadors too. They have taken a step forward. Disability should not be treated in isolation. Disability does not mean inability,” the organiser stressed.
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