The Miss Earth South Africa is a leadership programme that aims to empower young South African women with the knowledge and platform to create a sustainable difference in our plight to combat the destruction of our natural heritage. The programme helps to create an awareness of sustainable development, our environment, wildlife and the conservation of our natural legacy in South Africa, and ultimately the preservation of Mother Earth.
Our goal is to create sustainability, citizenship and stewardship through our environmental work. Now more than ever before we as South Africans are experiencing the effects of global warming, climate change and sustainability issues.
Energy and Water have also become crucial denominators and we need to adapt to these changes and build better infrastructure within communities. Our aim is to promote peace, respect and humility towards one another. By so doing we free ourselves to take on the responsibilities we face as human beings.
To create a positive and lasting change in corporate and social behaviour by addressing environmental, water, energy, conservation and sustainability issues. Ensuring we build communities and networks based on the principles of sustainability and human development.
We strive to increase awareness of environmental issues through the development of sustainable programmes. The Miss Earth South Africa Leadership Programme for Women, with education and community development, firmly rooted at its core, strives to nurture environmentally and socially minded leaders of the future.
We seek to instill integrity and leadership, trust and respect in all those with whom we work. Our projects are people and environment focused and regard the development of women and children in the highest stead…
Over the course of a decade, the Miss Earth South Africa in association with Consol has grown from strength to strength and as the number of participants has grown so too has the depth of its reach. Through tree and sustainable garden plantings in underprivileged areas, stationery drives and conservation and environmental management projects, the Miss Earth South Africa in association with Consol has touched hundreds of thousands of lives. The organisation prides itself on creating sustainable relationships, not only with the communities it strives to reach but also with the participants and its influence is felt for many years to come. 2004 Winner, Sally Leung proudly states “because of [her] time as a MESA Ambassador [she] decided to pursue a career in environmental and maritime law. Members of the MESA team have also been individually recognised for their unique commitment to the plight of the environment. Ella Bella, the Miss Earth South Africa Educational Officer has received innumerable commendations from various environmental bodies, including the on-going retention of her status as a Youth Ambassador for the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP), she was also recently recognised as one of the Mail & Guardian’s 200 Young South Africans in the Environmental Category. National Director, Catherine Constantinides has also had her share of awards including the being chosen as Cosmopolitan Magazine’s Top Women of the Year and the renowned Eskom ETA Awards in the Women for Communities category as well as recognition of the work done in communities by UNEP and the United Nations Development Programme South Africa, the Department of Basic Education, the Department of Environmental Affairs, Joburg City Parks, SANParks and SANCCOB (South African foundation for the conservation of Coastal Birds).
As an organisation, the Miss Earth South Africa has changed the perception of what women can and should be doing for the environment; we have created a platform for young energetic ladies from all over South Africa to be leaders and change agents within their communities and within their country. A legacy of empowerment, change and sustainability is what is aspired towards for every woman who participated in the Miss Earth South Africa Programme.
We strive to instil an understanding that social and environmental issues are not separate, but go hand in hand, in all we strive to achieve through our educational programmes in schools and communities. We believe that citizenship alongside sustainability is key to any kind of initiative where the women are the role players.
Our primary objective is to green the minds of our children for a better future and a balanced lifestyle. As such, we have pledged to green schools throughout the country.
It is of vital importance to us to ensure that we are able to go into schools and green areas for relaxation and sports as well as a place where they can sit in the shade of a green tree on a hot summer day and a place they can warm themselves on a chilly winter morning.
Many of our children are being educated in areas closely resembling dust bowls. We as a nation can and should be making a difference by planting trees, vegetable gardens and flowerbeds.
In our first ten years, we at the Miss Earth South Africa planted over 20,000 trees in an effort to minimise our own carbon footprint and green environments in which the children of our great nation grow up.
We also strive to inspire a culture of care in our children, not only for the environment for each other. It is imperative that each and every one of us be aware of the value of trees and grass and indigenous vegetation.
As South Africans we are faced with several social issues in our day to day lives; poverty, hunger and gender inequalities being among them.
We at the Miss Earth South Africa ensure that we encourage and uplift the communities within which we work. Through our projects and initiatives we are able to provide these communities with food through various feeding schemes and the planting of sustainable gardens, as well as with pens and pencils at the start of each academic year through our hugely successful annual stationery drives.
In addition to this, we are proud to have spearheaded a blanket drive for the past decade. These blankets encompass a wide group of individuals and community groups, both in the making and in the giving. Our goal is to bring warmth to those who knit and to those who receive.
For our organisation it is key to grow individuals and assist in achieving a balance in everyday living. We pride ourselves in the fact that we are able to find a happy medium that allows us to balance people and the environment.
As an organisation we believe that education is the cornerstone of our future. In everything we do, we ensure that there is an educational foundation.
As such we build the young minds of the children we interact with on a daily basis. Learning thrives in a productive environment, and by educating and greening, we are able to accomplish something special, which means that the children simultaneously receive knowledge, a healthier environment and a broader perspective. Creating an ownership around natural spaces is key for children and women alike, this creates sustainability and an ethos and passion for conservation.
“Our children are our greatest investment as we move forward through time. There is no worthier cause than the care of the future generations.” — Catherine Constantinides
As an organisation it is so important for us to draw attention to issues that affect the world. In the last few years there has been an enormous focus on ensuring the global community takes responsibility for their actions and decisions in industry, economics, education and consumerism. It is critical that developed countries understand their role in righting the wrongs caused by their destructive methods of economic and industry growth, especially as third world countries exacerbate the problem by continuing to use these old methods and “dirty” energies in an attempt to establish their own infrastructure and economic growth.
We as members of a developing nation, the Miss Earth South Africa strives to place the necessary pressure on our government to add renewable energy to the energy mix of South Africa. Whilst we understand that, as a nation, we cannot immediately cease our dependence on coal, we can begin the process of introducing power generated by sustainable resources, such as sun and wind, to our energy mix.