A resident of Ontdekkers Park has recently been crowned as Mrs Africa Continent SA 2017 – a title literally meaning ‘Mother of the Continent’.
Louise Niemann was one of the finalists who walked away with a title and a crown. She said she did not come from the pageant world at all, and saw this as an opportunity to help with society issues.
“I am not a poppie kind of chick and was never a model. I grew up on a farm in Zimbabwe!” she said smiling.
As Mrs Africa Continent SA 2017 she will mainly focus on society and community. She said her main reason for competing in the pageant was to show society that issues resulting from poverty, addiction, abuse and obesity (to name a few) could be overcome by having a better self-image. “I want people to know that dreams can be achieved by healing your self-image, and if I could do it, so can you,” she said.
Louise comes from a background of abuse – mental, physical and sexual – that completely damaged her as a person. According to her, an abuse victim will always circle back to abuse if the circle is not broken. “About five years ago I asked myself if I was going to keep on existing or start living, and I decided to choose life and started working through my problems, not just the symptoms,” Louise said.
For Louise this title means a lot, and she said the hard work during her six months as a finalist was worth it. “This is part of my light, to be able to help 85 per cent of society affected by various forms of addiction, abuse and other issues. Imagine how it would be if the self-image of 85 per cent of society is healed?” she said.
She is not just a pretty face and is busy studying towards a degree in Psychology, which she wants to use to plant seeds throughout the community – from schools to rehabilitation centres. “I want to write books and manuals on how to transform your self-image. I want to develop a programme that could be used in rehabilitation centres to transform the patient’s self-image in an attempt to stop the use of drugs. I also think schools need to implement a subject, apart from life orientation/ science, that teaches school kids from a very young age to live a better, healthier life,” she said.
She concluded with a message for every young person out there, “Every morning when you wake up, look in the mirror and tell yourself you are a princess or a prince and that you love yourself. Make sure you do not spend time with anyone who does not treat you as such. It might sound simple, but if everyone did that, it would make a huge difference to society.”
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