The first-ever Miss Wafrica is ready to take on her role as a community ambassador and is prepared to tackle issues such as domestic violence.
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Patricia Layweh said it was a privilege to be crowned at the Wagga African Association’s inaugural event on Saturday.
“My passion is to work with the youth. We need to teach them about the community and respecting our community,” she said.
“We need to present ourselves as good people because our culture is all about peace and love and we need to pass that onto the new generation.
“We need to address the issues of domestic violence in the community, we need to be talking about it and I am always here for anyone who needs to chat.”
Ms Layweh moved to Australia from Liberia 13 years ago and has lived in Wagga for nine.
“Miss Wafrica a was beautiful night to celebrate the diversity,” she said. “We came out in our European dresses and then our African dresses and then we had to answer some questions to get points.
‘When I was asked how I would contribute to the community, I said I wanted to work with the African community to give back to the Australian community.”
Ms Layweh said she was surprised to be chosen as Miss Wafrica and teared up a little.
“All of us girls worked hard and we hope to make it even better next year,” she said. “We want everyone to attend including our Aussie families to celebrate.”
Samuel Avo, president of Wafrica, said the pageant was a huge success.
“Even at the conclusion of the night, people were already making inquiries about next year,” he said.
“We also found a great ambassador in Patricia. In her acceptance speech, she mentioned something close to our heart. She talked about the plight of the farmers and how she wanted to use her platform to bring attention to this.”
Mr Avo said the event can only grow from here and he hopes to see more of the Wagga community get on board.
“We hope we can use this experience to work with other organisations to address issues that our community are facing,” he said.
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