A beautiful way to help others

MOSSEL BAY NEWS - Meet Melanie van Oudtshoorn. No, she's not from Oudtshoorn; she's from Mossel Bay. Her surname is Van Oudtshoorn.

She is the current Mrs Eden.

The beauty pageant was held at the Garden Route Casino's Bravo Lounge on 28 December 2019. The competition run by Karen Gray, the director of Crawlers & Crowns.

Melanie (38) is originally from Pretoria, but has been in Mossel Bay for 11 years now. She is a qualified trauma nurse, but is not working fulltime. "I am locuming because my husband works abroad and I have two young children."

She and her husband adopted their children. Melanie says: "When I was younger, I entered Miss Pretoria and took part in photogenic competitions, but Mrs Eden was my first beauty pageant.

"I just did it for fun and I won."

Melanie then entered the Mrs Universe SA pageant and is a semi-finalist.

"We were supposed to meet in April in Johannesburg, but the meeting was cancelled because of the lockdown. Now we will probably meet in May.

Theme is domestic violence
"The Miss Universe pageant theme is domestic violence. It's a good cause. The pageant final has been postponed because of the lockdown. It will now take place in August or September."

Melanie is set on supporting Creating Effective Families, the shelter in D'Almeida for women who have been abused. "I want to reach out to them and see how I can help."

Also, Melanie currently supports Friemersheim Primary School. She donated stationery to the Grade Rs at the beginning of the year and she is making Mother's Day cards for the children for their mothers.

"I have spoken to the principal of the school and he said there are families struggling now. I want to try to organise food parcels for them. The principal is letting me know their needs. I will also be donating second-hand clothes."

Join Melanie's efforts
To help Melanie in supporting women who have come out of abusive relationship or families in need in Friemersheim, contact her via her facebook page, www.facebook.com/MelVo2015/ or email her (melanievanoudtshoorn@yahoo.com).

Melanie welcomes any sponsors who will assist her in providing for these worthy causes.

Also, because Melanie and her husband adopted their children, she would like to help inform others about adoption and strive to eliminate negative perceptions people may have about adopting children.

Melanie van Oudtshoorn Photo: Lynelle Pienaar Photography