By Aisha Tamba
Biddy’s Promotion second edition of Face of Beauty Gambia pageant has been slated for 3 March 2018 at the Kairaba Beach Hotel.
The annual beauty pageant, according to Mrs. Ida Bidwell Mansaray the founder and CEO of Biddy’s promotion, is aimed at empowering young girls to celebrate their unique talents, potentials and beauty.
“It is about time that the fashion industry in The Gambia is boosted, thereby giving young women the opportunity to uplift themselves with a high sense of confidence in the world of fashion and modeling,” she said.
She intimated that her team is focused on celebrating the whole woman, mind, body and spirit thereby uplifting young women by holding an annual pageant to showcase and celebrate their talents, beauty and intellect.
“The Face of Beauty Gambia is here to redefine what it means to be a courageous, compassionate and confident young woman in the Gambia,” she stated.
Ida Bidwell Mansaray is a well-known public figure in The Gambia and a renowned mogul in the fashion industry who is an ardent advocate for women’s empowerment.
This year’s Face of Beauty Gambia pageant, she added, is organised by the award-winning pageant and the winner of this year’s event will be handed a plot of land by Gam Housing located at Sanyang Village worth over D200, 000.
“Last year it was a sell-out event but we want to do things even better and bigger this time around. We have the support and enthusiasm to do so. The pageant means a lot to me, as a Gambian. We are very prepared this year. We have already proven our best last year and that is really making our work so easy,” she said.
She disclosed that they have over 17 potential sponsors this year, which she said is a tremendous achievement for her and the team.
On the selection criteria, Mrs. Bidwell said: “We don’t select people individually. We advertise on social media to allow interested participants to apply and after we do our final selection from the number of applicants.
“But I have to also emphasize that there is no winner or loser; to me they are all winners. The moment you take part in the competition you are a winner. We have lots of international partners who want our winners to take part in their events.
“This time around it is going to be bigger and challenging because all our four winners are going to represent the Gambia internationally. Many international beauty pageants have contacted me and apart from Europe, we have pageants in China and other countries in Asia who want to invite us to their events.”
She continued: “To be honest it has not been easy, but frankly speaking we have lot of surprises in store that day. Although getting sponsors from the start is always difficult, thank God that we have about 17 sponsors.”
She said all the participants last year are not qualified to take part in this year’s competition.
