Beauty queen launches capacity-building programme for girls
SANDTON - Former Mrs South Africa Tereza Troskie-Herbst launched a capacity building programme for girls that promotes the theme ‘beauty with a purpose’ in Sandton.
Troskie-Herbst is also a businesswoman and a model with 23 beauty titles under her belt. She describes her initiative, Dream Girl, as a programme that empowers young women between the ages of 19 to 24.
“Dream Girl is a pageant with a difference where girls will get an opportunity to showcase and present their talents and leadership skills to the community,” explained Troskie-Herbst.
She added that a Dream Girl was an entrepreneur in every sense of the word. “[She] is a person who exudes moral values, commitment to family, society and friends,” she said.
“A Dream Girl will bring a different meaning to pageantry. In fact, this will be the Olympics of all pageantry. The winner will be a leader, an entrepreneur and an inspiration to her peers.”
She said she first stumbled across the Dream Girl concept in 2000 when she was a Mrs South Africa representative in America.
“The concept of rewarding the effort that you put in made a lot of sense to me. You teach the youth that the outcome of their life can be decided by them. By taking responsibility for their lives and efforts, they can decide what the successes or failures of their efforts are,” she said.
Troskie-Herbst sees the initiative growing and involving corporates and other business entrepreneurs to invest in the programme to influence the youth.
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