12 Jun 2016

Primary and secondary students on Saturday graced this year’s Mr and Miss June 16 beauty pageant at the Civic Centre to witness who will wear the crown and become their ambassador.

In an interview, the chairperson of the steering committee, Abel Seepi said the pageant was part of the series of events that started last month such as the spelling bee and panel discussion which all lead to the commemoration of the African Child Day also known as June 16.

He said the main objective of the pageant was to have students’ representative at the commemoration and present a petition to the mayor of Francistown on the anti-sexual abuse campaign.

He added that they were targeting all age groups of students and all schools including private ones as they would showcase their talent and entertain to celebrate the day.                   

Seepi noted that this year’s theme is Conflict and Crisis in Africa, Protect all Children’s Rights.

“The major focus in this year’s activities emphasise on efforts to elevate child protection agenda and ensure preservation of life and wellbeing of children” he said.

He encouraged parents and stakeholders to keep children free from violence, abuse especially sexual abuse, exploitation, neglect, lack of proper care and guidance and unnecessary separation from families.

Furthermore, he said the other focus would be to come up with strategies to strengthen resilience among children and their families as well as address other known risk factors that were a hindrance to child development.

The king and queen for secondary schools walked away with P500 each and in the primary school category the king and the queen each walked away with P400.

The first prince and princess at secondary school level each walked away with P400 while in the primary school category they walked away with P300 each. In the secondary school category the second prince and princes won P300 each and in the primary category they each won P200.

The consolation prize was P200 for secondary school contestants and P150 for primary school contestants. ENDS