By Gabriella Chapman

OVER the years, pageantry has been thrown under a negative light, with the scandals that sometimes surround the industry. However, one cannot shy away from the fact that it has been, and continues to be, a platform that attracts many young women.
Realising this fact, Executive Director of Imperial House, Wasim Khan, decided to make use of the platform to mould and build the quality of young women that can be role models to other young women in Guyana.

In an interview with the Pepperpot Magazine, Khan said that pageantry is a good tool that can be used to propel a young woman to great heights if used the right way. He shared his story on what birthed the idea of hosting the first-ever Miss Guyana Teen Scholarship Pageant.

In 2016, he said, Imperial House leased the Miss Guyana Talented Teen Pageant from Simpli Royal, and staged the pageant in Guyana. The winner subsequently represented the country in St. Kitts at the Caribbean Talented Teen Pageant, and for the first time in 16 years, Guyana secured the First Runner up spot.
Khan said that even though Guyana’s rep spaced so high, it was a ‘winner takes all’ pageant, and she came back with mere bragging rights, after over a million dollars was spent on her to represent.

This, however, was not the investment he deemed impactful. As such, in 2017, Khan said they gave back Talented Teen to Simpli Royal, and came up with their own concept.
Even though the idea was birthed in 2017, the organisation took two years to develop the idea and is now making it a reality in 2019.

The new concept, he said, is in alignment with the focus of Imperial House, which is youth empowerment, and it focuses strictly on girls from the age of 13 to 19.
Shedding light on the new pageant concept, Khan said that the Miss Guyana Teen Scholarship Pageant allows more than just an opportunity to walk on a stage and compete with other girls.

In fact, the pageant is like the graduation ceremony from a two-month programme, where the girls will be able to demonstrate what was instilled in them during the programme.
“It is not just a pageant. It is a programme that will run for two months, July and August, and the pageant will mark the end of the programme. This programme consists of 10 modules that the girls have to go through before reaching to the stage, and they will get a certificate of participation at the end,” Khan explained.

These modules cover life skills and equip them with the tools necessary to be empowered, career-oriented women in the country.

“All of the girls are in school or just out of school. So the programme prepares them for the realities of life. We have covered so far, workshops on health, time management, finance and budgeting, makeup and skincare, and we’ll be focusing on most of the things they may have to deal with on a daily basis. Also, the girls are required to write an essay based on a project that they are passionate about. They are required to associate themselves with a charity organisation to work towards championing a cause, and all these are adding to their overall development. A mentorship programme is also running simultaneously with the pageant preparations to give support to the girls,” Khan said.

Eighteen girls are currently enrolled in the programme, and the most outstanding one will get a scholarship to the tune of $400,000, to invest in whatever they aspire to be.
“Because the focus is not just on the pageant, at the end of this programme, even though there will be one winner, we would have produced 18 stronger ladies that found a better version of themselves. And this I believe will allow us to have a more robust pool of young ladies, and this programme can be a catalyst for the bigger pageants,” he posited.
He shared further that a lot of sponsors would have said that they don’t do pageants, but after seeing the girls deliver at the sashing ceremony, many of them saw the potential that can come out of this new concept of pageantry.

“Pageantry is a sport, and young women are drawn to pageants. So it can be used to make better versions of themselves, and mould and make a role model for others. We will continue to build on 2020, and this will be an annual activity so girls can benefit tremendously,” Khan said.

The pageant will be held on September 7 at the National Cultural Centre (NCC) and would not have been possible without the generosity of the sponsors that supported Imperial House’s vision.

Some of the sponsors he noted are Ministry of the Presidency, KFC Guyana, 55 Photography, Professional Guard Services Inc., GuyWillShip, Bella Oasis International and more.