Beautiful advocates of Mother Earth from around the world

BY CHRISTINA ALPAD, TMT ON OCTOBER 18, 2017 LIFESTYLE

Miss Earth 2017 candidates pay a visit to The Manila Times
With its inaugural competition held in 2001, Miss Earth—the unique beauty pageant that champions environmental protection awareness—is officially 16 years old.

As such, almost all candidates in the upcoming international pageant were below 10 years old when the competition was born. Nevertheless, the advocacy to care for Mother Earth only seems to have intensified in the last decade and a half, with beautiful women all over the world interested as ever to join this pageant for a cause.

Proof are 40 candidates who flew to the Philippines in the hopes of winning the Miss Earth 2017 crown and thereby become Mother Nature’s newest ambassador.

With the grand coronation night is slated on November 4 at Mall of Asia Arena, the beauties are busy with pre-pageant activities, which on Monday included a visit to The Manila Times offices by seven candidates.

Quickly becoming the paper’s favorites, find out more about the representatives of Angola, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Hungary, Japan, Krygyzstan and Peru and their advocacies toward caring for our one Mother Earth.

Ermelinda de Matos
Country: Angola
Age: 23
Advocacy: A law graduate from Luanda, Angola is all for encouraging people to live a greener lifestyle. Her country’s first ever delegate to the competition, de Matos believes, “This kind of lifestyle can be achieved by using more environmental-friendly products.”

Maria Fernanda Rodriguez
Country: Costa Rica
Age: 20
Advocacy: A Civil Engineering student from Quesada, Costa Rica is all for advocating love. “I think love is the key to everything, we need to learn how to love our mother earth. If we truly love her, we’ll take care of her the way she really deserves,” Rodriguez, who has long dreamed of joining the competition since she was a child, noted.

Ingrid Franco
Country: Dominican Republic
Age: 21
Advocacy: A professional model, Franco is advocating the importance of clean water. “We need to take care of water because it is a vital element for us to continue to enjoy our Earth. To do so, we must be mindful of our trashes and not throw them away anywhere,” the child of Santo Domingo, her country’s capital, shared.

Viktória Viczián
Country: Hungary
Age: 20
Advocacy: For this Communication and Media student, environmental protection and awareness incorporates several factors. “First we need to learn to love each other so that we can encourage each other for the good of our planet. Second, we need to analyze what our own countries need and strive for all citizens to unite. Finally, we need to involve children, we need to teach them early the importance of protecting Mother Earth,” the native of Budapest, Hungary, thoroughly explained.

Yasuyo Saito
Country: Japan
Age: 21
Advocacy: A Food Science graduate from Fukoka is a believer that “If we want to change the world, we should start from our selves. There’s a bigger chance we can influence our neighbors if we show them good examples.”

Nazarova Begimai
Country: Kyrgyzstan
Age: 20
Advocacy: A Justice and Advocacy student from Kyrgyzstan’s capital, Begimai is strongly against water and air pollution and promises to do whatever it takes to educate people from her country and around the world of their dangers.

Karen Isabel Rojas
Country: Peru
Age: 24
Advocacy: For this TV presenter who hails from Moyobamba, Peru, promoting recycling is her main advocacy. “In my country, recycling is just not part of our culture,” Rojas admitted. As such, she sees Miss Earth as the perfect platform to promote recycling to her countrymen.

http://www.manilatimes.net/beautiful-advocates-mother-earth-around-world/357288/