MASERU — A local organisation has been established to prepare Lesotho beauties for international beauty pageants.
For a start the Face of Lesotho Foundation will host the Face of Lesotho 2011 competition on May 28.
One lucky girl will be crowned Face of Lesotho while nine others will each walk away with a crown that will enable them to compete internationally this year.
“We have established a foundation that will cater for international beauty pageant participation preparations and Face of Lesotho 2011 is one of them,” said Tlali Tlai, the national director of Face of Lesotho Foundation.
“The competition which is going to be a black tie event will be hosted on May 28 but the venue is yet to be confirmed,” Tlali said.
Face of Lesotho Foundation is a non-profit organisation which seeks to promote and expand the country’s beauty, fashion and tourism industries.
Auditions for the event have already started.
“We held auditions for Maseru last Sunday and only 19 girls attended. We will be travelling to Hlotse on April 17 and Mohale’s Hoek the following weekend,” Tlali said.
He said Face of Lesotho would give potential models opportunities to take part in international modelling competitions.
“The competition will see all top 10 finalists being crowned queens. We are going to have one Face of Lesotho and nine international crown-bearing queens.”
Ten queens would be selected from 20 girls to be recruited from across the country.
“All the 10 girls will automatically qualify for international pageant participation with the Face of Lesotho winner representing Lesotho at the Miss World 2011,” Tlali said.
“This pageant is a national competition so we are hoping to stage it outside Maseru,” he said.
He added: “We will have one girl, the Face of Lesotho as an ambassador, but all the girls will work as a team when it comes to charity work.”
There would be a one-week camp where contestants will be judged on swimwear, corporate and traditional wear.
“The final tour of the pageant will only take a maximum of four hours,” Tlali said.
Entrance will be by reservation and invitees only.
Tlali said the winners of Face of Lesotho will walk away with prizes that will cater for their international travelling needs.
“We haven’t received any sponsors yet but we want our prizes to benefit the international trips.”
The foundation aims to host the competition at a tourism site and the clips will receive international broadcast from Italian Television, Sky TV and Reteitalia TV which have viewership from over 100 countries.
Tlali said Lesotho will this year send local queens to participate at the Miss World, Miss Tourism World, Miss Tourism International, Miss Tourism Queens, Miss United Nations, Miss Young International, Miss University Africa, Miss Globe, Miss SADC and Miss Southern Africa.
