Help fight gender violence

MOSSEL BAY NEWS - Mossel Bay's very own Mrs Universe SA contender, Melanie van Oudtshoorn, is appealing for help from the community in her pageant quest.

As a finalist, Melanie, who is also the current Mrs Eden, needs to raise funds to support her journey to hopefully winning the Mrs Universe SA crown.

The pageant organisers have brought out a sponsorship proposal wherein companies or private individuals can sponsor either R7 000, R5 000 or R1 500.

Melanie says she understands the economy has been constricted because of the lockdown, so there is the opportunity for people or companies to band together to come up with these amounts. "Even if three different people sponsor R500 each to make up R1 500, it will make a huge, positive contribution," she says.

Sponsors receive attractive benefits from sponsorship in terms of marketing and promotion.

Widely publicised
The Mrs Universe SA pageant is widely publicised on television, on radio and in the press every year and sponsors benefit from this. Also, the 2020 pageant has an anti-domestic violence theme, which the contestants must demonstrate that they support.

Melanie says: "I myself was in a toxic relationship - with verbal and emotional abuse. I took me four to five years to start feeling good about myself again."

Melanie watches the media closely in terms of issues of gender violence and is greatly concerned about the country's high domestic violence statistics.

Innovative Melanie is running a photo-graphic competition during the lockdown to raise funds for her quest for the crown.

Entrants must send in photographs of themselves demonstrating that they are leading a positive lifestyle during the lockdown.

The photo competition ends at the end of May.

The categories are: best smile, best overall positive look, best pose and best black and white photograph. Experts in the beauty industry will be judging the competition.

To contend for the main prize in the competition, the entry fee is R120 and for the various categories, R50.

To enter the photographic competition or sponsor Melanie, call her on 072 908 2808 or email her (melanievanoudtshoorn@gmail.com).

Melanie van Oudtshoorn