Miss Uganda North America to tour Uganda end of February

By George Mangula

Miss Uganda North America 2019/2020 Vanessa Nansamba will be in Uganda at the end of February, organisers of her tour say in a statement.

“We are so excited to be heading to Uganda for our third annual Cares Tour! Queen Vanessa will be spending time with teen moms, survivors of domestic violence and sexual abuse and youths in Uganda, as well as touring Murchison Falls National Park. Also welcoming Miss Oregon USA 2020 Katerina Villegas, who will be visiting Uganda for the first time,” reads part of the statement.

Let’s Talk Girl Stuff

Vanessa alongside a team of professionals will visit Rubaga Girls’s Secondary School and will spend time a the school mentoring, counseling and sharing with some of Uganda’s brightest future leaders. They will also donate scholastic and reading materials.

To Katanga slum with love

Vanessa’s team will be participating in education and cleaning up activities in Katanga slum to encourage a culture of proper sanitation in this community that leaves in abject poverty. “We will also be donating sanitation materials and a garbage collection bin,” a statement further reads.

Celebrating super moms, the remnant generation
The team will also draw inspiration from the stories of teen mothers that have survived domestic violence and sexual abuse to become independent women. The team will donate equipment for income generation activities.

Vanessa Nansamba, 25, won the Miss Talent Competition at the 2019 Beauty Pageant, which was held in Chicago at the Hyatt Regency Chicago on August 30, 2019, before going on to give the best answers in the final rounds to take home the crown.

Vanessa currently holds a BA in Biological Sciences and a Masters in Biomedical Sciences. She has done mental health research among minorities and taught at a college. “My multifaceted identity as a first-generation Ugandan American woman who grew up in a Christian and Islamic home fostered a mind eager to learn,” she mentions in her profile. “I have had the privilege of being exposed to people of diverse backgrounds. Those experiences shaped my view on becoming the person I envisioned myself to be,” she is quoted as saying after being winning the beauty pageant.

Vanessa’s work with the Behavioral Health Initiative at Geisinger Commonwealth School of Medicine has inspired her platform of promoting mental health. She wants to use the Miss Uganda North America Platform to “bring mental health awareness to the Ugandan community at large

“I plan to start discussions normalizing therapeutic practices by utilizing resources already within the community.

 “I want to leave a legacy in my community of achieving and maintaining mental wellness. I plan to start discussions normalizing therapeutic practices by utilizing resources already within the community. Overall, I aim to reduce the stigma around mental illness, increase the awareness of methods for managing mental health, and improve access to quality healthcare.”