Former Miss Petite Botswana and current 2nd Princess Miss Botswana Winfred Motcher is in Pristina, Kosovo (southeastern Europe) representing Botswana and Africa in Miss Freedom of the World 2021.
The petite beauty is competing pound to pound with other prepossessing women from the rest of the world.
Motcher isn’t playing games there. In the time leading to the finale, she won three awards – Best Catwalk, Best evening dress and Best Talent – dance tribute for the African child performed on TV.
“I was scouted by our national director, Chrissilder Mojoko Dambe, after she had witnessed my journey in Miss Botswana and previous pageants in which I have participated and won, Miss Petite Botswana being an example” she said in an interview with Executive Life.
“It is my first time overseas and the girls I’ve become friends with have made it an absolute pleasure besides the rollercoaster of emotions that comes with competitions. The culture here is quite different from Botswana. I miss our food and spices. Otherwise people are super friendly and patient with us with the language barrier.”
Although she has been leaving no stone unturned, she lacked sufficient support and finances to bring the title home. “The finale was on the 30th of August,” she explained. “Unfortunately I did not win despite the multiple awards I earned before. I strongly believe I would’ve have had a better result had I received more support, both financial and on social media, from home. There were a lot of extra costs involved for things like professional photographer, participation fees and damaged luggage. Being unable to afford these was not impressive at all.”
But inspite these difficulties, there were people and organisations that supported her throughout. “My flight was sponsored by Dyzrupt Ltd,” Motcher said. “They’re very big on women empowerment and were more than happy to provide my air ticket as they believed in my talent. My other sponsors were Shahnaz Spa, who provided full body grooming. My wardrobe was partially sponsored by designers Faddic- National costume & Purple Ivory Designs.
Being in London has opened more doors for herfor other international beauty pageants too. “While there, I have been scouted and invited to three other international pageants later this year and next year. If I get the necessary support, I will be competing again soon,” she said.
Opportunities like these are often extended to beauty queens in Botswana but they usually fail to take them because of lack of sponsorship and support. Tsholofelo Dikobe, who is a fashion award winner, has pointed out the need for a wider range of qualities that may attract sponsorship and the importance of beauty tourism.
“Gone are the days when beauty pageantry was just about crowning a beautiful lady,” she told Executive Life. “Fast forward to the 21 Century, and you find that beauty pageantry isn’t just about crowning a lady because they are beautiful. While beauty is still one of the attributes, it doesn’t carry as much weight as other attributes that are considered.
“A lady is chosen in terms of her personality, her tenacity to work on social issues that affect women, her interests and her outlook on life in general. They use their femininity and voice to present issues. Moreover, beauty pageantry should also be viewed as tourism.”
She has also called out for organizations and stakeholders to capitalize on supporting beauty Queens as they can make people tour our country.
“Interactive platforms where ladies converge from various countries to experience each other’s countries through pageant is also imperative. For every Botswana beauty Queen that we send out to the world, there is social economical effect that lures in tourism to Botswana through the beauty of its people. So we need to take heed of beauty pageants as beauty tourism for a country and so much more,” she advised.
“We need to invest in them and take them in high regard like we do sports/athletics because they essentially have the same outcome – to market and sell a country for world consumption.”
