The word ‘deaf’ is maybe not considered good, or everybody has their own perspective towards the deaf people, but Africa is promoting a lot in order to give them a name or fame.
And due to this, ‘Jeannette Uwimana’ has become the first deaf women contestant in Rwanda’s beauty pageant.
Uwimana is only 26 years old and belongs to the south of the country, and nowadays, she is living in a boot camp with 20 others ahead of the Miss Rwanda finale in mid-March.
The annual contest is a popular event in Rwanda and is followed eagerly on social media.
However, her mother is not so surprised by her success so far, as she stated that she had seven daughters, and all of them had always been into fashion.
And she tried before this also, and she failed to participate in the pageant, especially those who questioned whether a deaf person was eligible for the competition.
In the initial rounds of the pageant, Ms Uwimana used sign language in order to explain judges, and interpreted by her close friend ‘Faïna Kabayiza.‘
According to ‘Meghan Nimwiza‘, a spokesperson for the competition and also she is a previous winner; she stated that the event organisers were proud that Miss Rwanda was more inclusive this year.
Rwanda’s deaf community has also welcomed the participation of Ms Uwimana.
There are more than 33,000 people who registered themselves for the competition as being deaf during Rwanda’s last census in 2012.
The country has recently adopted this new law in which they adopted sign language to be included in public communications.
As per Miss Uwimana, she is the best candidate, and she has ore chance to win the title of Miss Rwanda; she gave this statement to Media channels, and furthermore, she said, “I can confidently say that I possess all the requirements – beauty, brains and culture.”
