7 to vie for Miss Vreed-en-Hoop Secondary title

The Vreed-en-Hoop Secondary will, on May 1st, host its first annual Miss Vreed-en-Hoop Secondary Pageant and Fair at the West Demerara Secondary School’s ground. The event promises to be a grand one, with gates opening from 10:00h to signal the start of the cricket competition, which would be followed by a football competition commencing at 13:00h.
There will be additional games and other attractions for everyone to enjoy. The organisers say it is the event that no one wants to miss, and add that the pageant begins as 18:00h, when the seven young students will be engaged in a fierce battle for the crown.
Not only would the young ladies be given the option to display their professional, casual and evening pieces, their smarts would also be tested during the question-and-answer segment.
Additionally, each of the seven young ladies would be required to produce and execute a talent piece.
Vying for the coveted crown are third former Bianca Durga, along with fourth formers Lisa Bernard, Jada Payne, Mokeba Best, Sarah Brathwaite, Elizabeth Emmanuel and Kimba Coates.
Each contestant selected an issue that they along with fellow students experience on a daily basis, and each would have to do a presentation on their platform during the public speaking segment.
Bianca: “I chose the topic ‘dangers of social media’ because, as a teenager, we are constantly on our phones and other devices using various social media sites, but we do not know the dangers those sites pose. I want to make my fellow students and others aware of how we can use social media for education, and that is why I am in this pageant.”
Lisa: “Domestic violence is a growing issue, and it is something a lot of my fellow students experience or know someone who (does) it. It affects everyone, and we need to do more (to combat it). I want to work with parents and children to make sure we can fight this.”
Jada: “In my community of Pouderoyen, a lot of young people are curious, and they are curious about sex for various reasons. This is the reason I chose teenage pregnancy as my topic, because I feel we need to do more to make sure young ladies are not taken advantage of.”
Mokeba: “Every day some child is being sexually abuse, and it is the fathers, brothers or other family who abuse the child. I want to focus on telling my fellow youngsters to speak up and speak out against all forms of abuse.”
Sarah: “I am going to look at the effects of teenage pregnancies, because plenty time young people are getting pregnant and then they have to drop out of school to take care of the baby, and they are not ready yet. So I want to highlight what a good education can do, and reasons why we should not focus on boys.”
Elizabeth: “Our school is in a community that has a lot of poverty and drug use. We see that on a daily basis, and that is why I want to tackle drug abuse, because it is happening among a lot of young people. We have to make a change.”
Kimba focuses on suicide, but was unable to be a part of the interview due to illness.