After decades of missing out, Uganda is now set to make its maiden appearance in Miss International Beauty contest, a pageant race that is organised annually in Tokyo, Japan.
Evelyn Kironde Namatovu was unveiled on Wednesday at Athena Hotel Bugolobi as the beauty who will be representing Uganda at this international pageant.
The 23-year-old beauty will be carrying country ’s flag at the pageant’s 59th edition. The event is slated for November 12, 2019 at Tokyo Dome City Hall in Bunkyo district, Tokyo, Japan.
Namatovu will be facing off with other 89 contestants, who are also eyeing to take on the crown after Mariem Claret Velazco, a Venezuelan model and Miss International 2018-2019.
Not new to pageant races, The Mityana-born beauty queen participated in Miss Uganda 2016 where she made it to the top five finalists, and later, she was crowned as Miss Beach 2016.
Namatovu is a Makerere University student, who is soon graduating with a Bachelor’s Degree in Entrepreneurship and Business Management, and believes that with her ‘business professionalism’, she will be able to bring the crown home.
“I am planning to use this beauty pageant to gather all necessary resources to support youths who are in business, since this pageant is about business tourism, cultural exchange, fashion among other, I believe that I will represent my country well because personally I’m passionate about business,” she said during the unveiling ceremony.
Miss International has been in existence since 1960 and stands for Business tourism, International Business, Cultural exchange, Fashion, Creative Arts and Showbiz business among others. But Uganda will be making her debut appearance this year.
Monica Aketch, the National Director of Miss International Uganda Franchise, believes that Namatovu was the right choice to represent Uganda, because of her passion about pageants and business, her personality, intelligence and beauty.
Aketch also noted that since they had only a month to unveil Uganda’s representative in this pageant, they didn’t have time to do regional additions, and opted for online casting and interviews.
“We made a call for submission and received a big number of contestants. Since we had little time to make a decision, we had to choose someone who is familiar with pageantry, Beautiful, intelligent, and Namatovu was the perfect person for this,” she said.
Ayub Kato, the Managing Partner of Smiling Faces International also International Director for Miss International Uganda, said this pageant will help Uganda to build international business relations with other countries, and also encourage cultural exchange.
“I am proud to be part of this international pageant, and believe that we can use this platform to brand our country internationally in form of business tourism, cultural exchange, and international business among others.”
Miss international is a Japanese-Based international beauty pageant, organised by the international Cultural Association. It’s regarded as the fourth largest pageant in the world in terms of having crowned national winners to participate in the international contests.
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