WITH her passion for making a difference in the lives of young girls and women, Durban’s Christina Maloka, has been chosen as a 2018 Mrs Africa Continental finalist.
Christina was born and raised in Qwaqwa, a small village in the Free State and came to Durban to study Cost and Management Accounting and ended up staying.
She is a wife to Sechaba and a mother of two boys and guardian to her sister’s son. Her involvement with the pageant started after an extremely painful experience she had to endure as a woman.
“I lost my six-month-old son, Kamohelo six years ago and I went through stages of depression and feeling that people didn’t understand what I was going through. I didn’t want to even think of having another child for a long time. After dealing with the pain, I eventually decided to try for another child, and the experience taught me to really value my children and to be grateful that they are healthy. This also encouraged me to start living a healthy life,” she said.
Christina said she had taken part in a few pageants when she was at school, but because she wasn’t tall enough, she had to give up the dream of winning titles.
When she came across an advert on Facebook for the Mrs KZN pageant in April, she thought it was great that there was a pageant for married women.
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“I fell in love with the idea, the fact that I could have a platform to help others, without having the restrictions of beauty pageants and decided to relive my dream! After taking part in the pageant, I came across the Mrs Africa Pageant Foundation and read about what it stands for. It is about giving back to the community and changing lives for the better. I went into the pageant with a different idea, not to fulfil my childhood dream, but to share my story with people,” she said.
Christina is passionate about babies and the plight of women who abandon their children and her dream is to run a foundation of her own, helping the babies who are unwanted to be cared for and eventually find loving homes of their own. She is using this journey and opportunities it can open up for her to be the mouthpiece for small children who are abandoned.
“It breaks my heart knowing how devastating it is to lose a child and how one’s life is affected by this. I want to use this journey to raise awareness for women like this, that there are other options, they don’t need to be ashamed. I don’t think anyone can live a normal life after giving up a child,” she said.
The pageant crowning is at the end of November in Johannesburg, and Christina will be judged by the community work she is doing.
Christina’s community work has involved visiting orphanages and hosting charity events.She will be holding a charity breakfast on Saturday, 18 August at Manning Road Methodist Church, Glenwood from 9.30am to 12.30pm.
Cost is a R150 donation. Funds will go towards sponsoring reusable sanitary wear (Dignity Pads) for girls in local children’s homes.
To book a ticket, contact Christina on 072 707 6751.
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