I will do it for Zambia

Mon, 24 Jul 2017 14:10:20 +0000

…Miss Heritage-Zambia’s Faith Mukonko aims to win the global showpiece

By BENNIE MUNDANDO

I  AM not going to compete at the Miss. Heritage global beauty pageant as a mere participant but as a real contender to the crown and will also use the opportunity to sell Zambia’s tourism prospects to the outside world, newly-crowned Miss. Heritage Zambia, Faith Mukonko has vowed.

Faith, 18, a Copperbelt University (CBU) engineering student who has swept three crowns out of the four competitions she has participated in in less than a year, says beauty pageantry had become part of her life and sees no real obstacle in the pursuit of her dreams other than challenges which she said were surmountable.

Born on October 8, 1998 in Chipata to Joshua Mukonko and Florence Mukonko, Faith has had a good cultural experience as the family has moved from one place to another during her childhood thereby exposing her to different environments.

Faith started her education in Chipata  where she did her pre-school, and lower grades before the family had stints in Mwinilunga, Luanshya, and went back to Chipata before finally settling in Luanshya where it is.

These movements, she says, were necessitated by transfers given to her father, who is also a product of the CBU and worked in the department of forestry before he quit formal employment to open up a consultancy firm and is also lecturing business courses at the National Institute of Public Administration (NIPA) campus in Ndola while her mother is running her own  business.

She says she only participated in a beauty pageants after completing her high school education and recounts that her first competition was a disaster as she lost due to inexperience but maintains that it was her springboard as she had raked in these crowns due to the experience from that losing episode.

“I went to various schools in Chipata, Mwinilunga, and Luanshya before completing my Grade 12 at Ndola Girls Technical High School in 2014 and then waited for a year and a half before joining CBU this year in January. I got my results two weeks ago and I am excited because I have made it to the second year and am entering the School of Engineering.

“I joined the pageant mid-last year. I went straight into pageantry without looking at the modelling aspect because they are sort of two different things. I first participated in the Miss. University in December 2016 but because of inexperience as it was my first competition, I lost terribly but not entirely because I learnt a lot from the competition and somehow, that was a win for me,” Faith explains.

She says the loss was the beginning of great things to come as she never looked back at her failures but took each challenge as it came and that it was just a matter of time before she started to re-write her own history as victories were just over the horizon.

“I went to CBU in January this year and in February, I participated in the Miss. Copperbelt University which was my second pageant and from the experience I had from the previous competition in December, I won. It was really awesome for me because I really wanted that crown to boost me up and at least motivate me to realise that I could do something.

“From that point, I participated in Miss. Heritage Copperbelt in March this year which was a qualifier to the Miss. Heritage-Zambia where the winner was to represent the country. Honestly, I had not prepared for the provincial competition because we had a few exams to write which were coming within the same time. Still, I managed to convince the judges I was the best in the province and I won that too,” she said.

Bubbling with confidence from her steady rise to fame, she went for the national competition  with full confidence but she described the national competition as the toughest showpiece she has ever had this far as she had to compete with the country’s finest beauty queens.

“I then went for Miss. Heritage-Zambia on July 8, 2017 which I should admit was my toughest competition out of the four I have already done because it was exclusively for title holders such as Miss. Valentines, Miss. UNZA, and the reigning Miss Pageant Zambia at that time and all these were major title holders whom I was sharing the floor with and it was really intimidating but then my instincts always tell me nothing is impossible for someone who badly needs something and so I did my best and I took every challenge that came because I had to come out the best.

“Out of other categories within the package, I won the one where you have to cook traditional foods and I was happy. I also grabbed the talent show and the ingenuity category. My cousin Chansa Mukonko is an artistic expert and who designed an eagle which I dressed in and I believe that is where I stole the show from because that creativity stood out,” she recounts.

She recounts that as part of the final, she dressed up in a replica of Chieftainess Malembeka’s outfit and expertly explained her tradition before they were asked to get into the evening gowns and then subjected to questions prepared by the National Heritage Conservation Commission (NHCC) before she was declared the winner.

She says she is determined to win the global crown for Zambia and will do everything to adequately prepare for the competition without disturbing her academic work which she holds so dearly.

“During the Miss. Heritage Zambia competition, I really wanted to show the judges that I deserved the crown and I won. I had told mum some time back that I wanted to represent Zambia at the Miss. Heritage Global and now I want to win it.

“I am self-motivated to some extent though not entirely. When I have a dream and set myself to achieving something, I literary stop at nothing until I achieve it and I think I got this side of me from my father because he is literary that kind of a person. I am goal-oriented. I am passionate for the things I do especially when it is for a good cause and I am fun-loving and that is what is at the centre of what I am,” she says.

On the local scene, Faith says she got her inspiration from dethroned 2016 Miss. Zambia, Louisa Chingangu, whom she identifies as a forerunner to the young girls interested in beauty pageantry as she had demonstrated that age was not an issue if anyone was determined to realise her dreams.

“I know people are aware of controversies surrounding her but for me, she is my number one. She has paved way for other young stars who want to come on board by becoming the youngest Miss. Zambia and I am where I am today because of her inspiration. She demonstrated at the time, that age cannot prevent anyone from becoming what she wants and I am using the same inspiration as I go to this global competition.

“For me going for Miss. Heritage-Global is an honour and a privilege and I will definitely not take it lightly. I feel for me to go there and represent Zambia is an opportunity to do things effectively.

“ I want to show that Zambia offers more than the world might have seen and heard. Being given a platform to talk about my country will be my greatest opportunity to tell the world about Zambia and market our tourism potential and sell the country. NHCC has given us a lot of insights on our heritage and I believe I still have enough time to collect more data about Zambia before the competition in January next year,” she notes.

She advises young people never to let go of their education in the pursuit of their extra-curriculum dreams saying people need both their education and talent in order to maximise their potential.

She says there is need for young people to strike a balance between school and extra-curriculum activities as they helped shape who they would become in life, adding that she does not feel that pursing someone’s talents is an excuse for failure in school.

“It carries more weight to see a woman out there who is a model pursuing her dream and then has tertiary education because it shows that women can do everything they want. Quitting school is not an option to pursuing your career. I have told you that I won my first prize when I was at CBU yet I had to clear courses. I don’t think participating in extra-curriculum activities should be an excuse for failing.

“Failing in school is just a choice and so, it is about balancing between school and your extra-curriculum dreams. Everyone needs education and it is important for everyone to keep a clear head and realise that you need both your papers and your talent to become a stronger person,” she advises.

In line with her beauty pageantry, Faith began the “Beauty to the Environment” (BTTE) campaign in 2016 where she is involved in clean-up exercises in communities while providing sensitisation messages to people, especially the youths, on the need to keep their surroundings clean.

She said with good support from well-wishers, she intends to extend the services to more communities through not only offering clean-ups to those that need help, but also providing them with refuse bins for them to use.

She says she is looking forward to seeing a clean Zambia where citizens changed their attitude towards illegal disposal of litter and garbage through her sensitization messages and says she does not intend to abandon the project despite the busy schedule ahead of her.

“I intend to continue with the BTTE campaign which I started in 2016 which is aimed at educating the young people in different communities on the causes and diverse effects of litter while cleaning up the environment. With enough funding and support from well-wishers, we intend to set up bins in certain communities that have no place to dispose of trash,” she says.

She identifies her elder sister, Patience, who is the Copperbelt University Students Union  vice president, as one of the people stand out as one of the people apart from her father and mother who have encouraged her to work hard in the pursuit of her dreams.