BATANGAS CITY – A 20-year-old radio presenter from Rwanda chose to wear a gown in the swimsuit competition of the Miss Earth 2017 pre-pageant held at the Pontefino Estates here last Saturday night.
Honorine Hirwa Uwase paraded in front of the judges in her yellow orange gown during the preliminary show. Asked why she did not wear a bikini, Uwase just smiled and refused to answer the question.
Aside from Miss Earth and Miss Supranational contests, Rwandan beauty queens have also participated in Miss World and Miss Universe pageants.
Uwase’s family is a 1994 genocide survivor, according to her bio for the environment-driven pageant.
“The fact that we are Rwandese, my family is 1994 genocide survivor. The genocide against Tutsi that happened 23 years ago, wiped away many family members and property, so when it ended we had to start rebuilding and restoring ourselves from zero and now we have a successful story to share,” said Uwase, whose country is located in Africa.
At the swimsuit competition for Group 3 of the Miss Earth 2017 contest, Miss Puerto Rico Karla Aponte won Gold medal for Best in Swimsuit.The Silver medal went to Miss Switzerland Sarah Peyrel and Bronze, Miss USA Andreia Gibau.
Other winners of special awards were Aponte, Miss J.A.C.M.I.; Miss Pontefino Hotel, Diana Mironenko of Ukraine; and Miss Pontefino Estates,Marija Nikic of Serbia.
Miss USA cites Trump
Reacting to the forthcoming visit of President Donald Trump in Manila, Miss USA Earth Andreia Gibau said that she hopes Mr. Trump will visit some of the eco-tourism spots in the Philippines when he goes to Asia in November.
“I hope that he gets to visit some of the eco-tourism spots in the country,” said Gibau during an interview at the same event.
Given the chance to meet Mr. Trump, the American beauty queen said: “There’s a lot of things going on in the world right now. I just wanted to tell him that he needs to put more love and more support into people, especially in the hurricane that happened in Puerto Rico, the hurricane that happened in Florida.
“And I think it’s important that he understands more about the environment because we are racing against time. And we really need to to support as many people as we can,” said Gibau, model and self-development coach from New York who speaks four languages.
Trump will fly to Asia, including the Philippines, for the upcoming Association of Southeast Asian Nations-East Asian Summit.
Gibau also promotes her environmental advocacy dubbed “Think global, act local” which she said encourages people to live in a way that does less harm to the environment
“I live in New York City and New York has a fast-paced life. People have very different lifestyles. My big thing is to show people that no matter what kind of lifestyle you live in, you can 100 percent live in a way that does less harm to the environment,” she said.
If she will be the next Miss Earth, the 22-year-old beauty queen said that she will start a Youtube channel that promotes care for the environment.
“I will start a Youtube channel because media and communication is big for me. And that’s my strong point. I wanna create videos showing ideas and provide tips on ways they can reduce harm to the environment,” Gibau said. (Robert R. Requintina)
