The founder, Snowwhite Heart Foundation and reigning queen of Miss United Nations Pageant, miss Precious Chikwendu, said the group would organise the Miss United Nations Nigerian Pageant (MUNNP) in Abuja.
Chikwendu said this during an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja on Saturday.
NAN recalls that Chikwendu won the 2014 edition of the Miss United Nations Pageant in Kingston, Jamaica.
The Miss United Nations Pageant is a private organisation with its head office in Miami, Florida, USA.
Its mission is to unite the world through beauty and reach out to the needy through charity.
Chikwendu said that the Nigerian version of the pageant would audition Nigerian ladies for the international pageant competition scheduled to hold in Kingston, Jamaica, later in the year.
She said the main focus of the pageant was the need to have volunteers who were ready to use beauty to add value to humanity.
“ The United Nations Pageant is a pageant that focuses on volunteer work, each contestant must have a background in volunteer work for her community.
“ If they are chosen to represent their country they will receive their countries’ title.
“Even if they don’t win one of the United Nations titles they will still have their countries’ title to do charity work.
“The United Nations Pageant has a category for every woman because we believe every woman has a voice at any stage of her life.
“ Our pageant has four areas of competition: Interview; fashion; sportswear and evening gown,’’she said.
The beauty queen said the pageant was also designed to give young women the opportunity to come together in a pageant setting, regardless of their backgrounds.
She said the pageant would afford the contestants the opportunity to build relationships with women from all parts of the world who were working diligently to leave an indelible footprint in their communities.
She said the MUNNP contest was designed to audition, select and prepare the best among the Nigerian contestants.
Chikwendu said the winner of the contest in Nigeria would represent the country with a view to winning the 2015 MUNP International title scheduled to hold in Kingston, Jamaica.
The Project Director of MUNNP, Mr Uche Odion, said the pageant was meant to inculcate and add value to members of the society.
Odion said that the age bracket for the project was between 19 years and 29 years.
He said one of the major conditions for qualification for the contest was the initiation of a pet project designed to uplift humanity.
“ For you to win the beauty pageant, therefore, you must have a running project.
“ You must have something you are doing or something you have already started that is bringing positive change to humanity.
Odion said the reigning Nigerian queen had executed many projects leading to economic empowerment and provision of infrastructure.
“ There is a project that she did in Calabar – a school that is dilapidated, the students don’t even have chairs; she actually went there and built seven blocks of classrooms,’’he said.
He said the Nigerian edition of the pageant would hold on May 16, 2015 at Transcorp Hilton, Abuja.
