The President of the Miss World Organization, Julia Morley, coined the phrase 'Beauty With A Purpose' more than 25 years ago and since then more than $US400 million have been raised in its name in support of children's charities across the globe, bring help and hope to hundreds of thousands in need. Among the many recipients of this outstanding fund-generating activity has been the Nelson Mandela Trust, Canada’s Cops For Cancer, Variety Clubs International, Operation Hunger, and the SOS Children’s Villages which cares for orphaned and abandoned children in 132 countries.
Today, Beauty with a Purpose is the name of a special annual award programme that singles out and recognises the Miss World contestant who is shown, through charitable works, to have made a real difference to people in need in her homeland. Charity work is an integral to the Miss World ethos and part of the brief to contenders in each country is that they volunteer their time or fundraise for charity. All of the money raised goes to the nominated cause and the entrants’ records are credited with details of their personal contribution. Their hard work, dedication and above all, results, are what puts them in the running for the Beauty with a Purpose award.
First established under the title Miss World Scholarship (the name change came about in 2001) the event is staged as part of the festivities just prior to the pageant itself and since 2005 the winner has automatically been awarded a place in the Miss World semi finals. Past winners of the Beauty with a Purpose competition have included Aishwarya Rai, now Bollywood’s biggest star; judges, performers and presenters who are always eager to be associated with so prestigious a programme, include Jerry Springer, Lionel Richie, Erol Brown, Robert Palmer, Enrique Iglesias, Il Divo, Ricky Martin, Jackie Chan, Ronan Keating, Joan Collins, Westlife, Jerry Hall, and the late Gregory Peck and Bob Hope.
Without question, it is the enduring popularity of the Miss World pageant that has helped spread the word and encouraged young women to get involved - as part of their bid for the title - in activities that really can only make the world a better place.
The pageant itself, which today attracts entrants from more than 110 countries and is watched by a TV audience of over 2 billion. The judges are no longer just looking for the most beautiful girl with the most fantastic figure; their brief is to interview each girl individually and to decide which one has exceptional merits and will serve as a role model for her generation.
Today, most of the pageant contestants are students taking a sabbatical between college and university and, even if they don’t eventually win, they will have travelled and made new friends from among the representatives from over 100 nations. Importantly, by the time they climb on to that stage before the world’s cameras, they will already have proved themselves through the charitable work they have under-taken.
The one who walks away with the crown, amid tumultuous applause, will go on to travel the world for a year and accumulate considerable finances, in order to further her education but while the girl who collects the Beauty with a Purpose award may not win the Miss World title, she will have had a unique experience and the satisfaction of knowing her hard work for others has been recognised.
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