Local lass appeals for votes as public choice contestant

Tracey Malawana, a third-year student at Unisa and coordinator at Healthy Living Alliance (HEALA), has entered for Miss Eagle South Africa 2018.

This Esiphethweni resident is appealing to members of the community to vote for her as their Public Choice contestant.

Malawana, a born human rights activist, grew up in the Tembisa Township where she has lived all her life.

Now 23 years old, she already has a number of achievements under her belt and an impressive Curriculum Vitae (CV).

She has addressed Parliament, served several organisations in different capacities and will be heading to Oxford in March as part of a fellowship she was awarded last year.

Malawana’s passion for advocacy started early in life.

Before she completed her matric she served as the RCL president at Masisebenze Comprehensive School, chairperson of Peer Supporters in Tembisa, assisted in coordinating the doll project to reduce the rate of teenage pregnancy locally and was one of the three learners who won an Eduplant competition in 2006 for their primary Thuthuka Primary school. She’s also an Oxbridge Academy graduate and a student at Unisa.

Tracey currently works as the coordinator of the HEALA – an alliance of like-minded organisations on a mission to improve the health of an increasingly obese South Africa.

She is the deputy chairperson at Equal Education, which is a movement of learners, teachers, parents and community members working for quality and equality in the South African education system through analysis and activism.

Tracey is also a current Tekano fellow.

She is one of Equal Education’s facilitators who successfully established a campaign for better sanitation in schools across Gauteng in 2013, and was part of the minimum norms and standards for school infrastructure campaign where she did research around access to feminine hygiene products in schools in early 2016.

Tracey helped establish a functional school library for Thuto-Ke-Matla Comprehensive School and was an equalizer, facilitator, community leader and a junior organiser for Equal Education.

Tracey has represented 15 community-based organisations across South Africa in Parliament on the sugar tax debate, which required her to build support and educate communities about the dangers of being obese and its contribution to diabetes.

The sugar tax bill was passed into law by President Jacob Zuma on December 14 last year after a long back and forth lobbying and debates in Parliament.

She is currently working on an exciting project with other Tekano fellows that will benefit schools across Gauteng.

Tracey is hugely passionate about access to quality education, women’s health, and youth and women empowerment.

She grew up as a giving person and has dedicated her whole life to bettering the lives of others. She is a leader and an activist with many dreams – one of them being to model.

However, due to her other commitments and numerous barriers that dream is one she could not pursue as a young girl.

Tracey is now one of the brand ambassador contestants for Miss Eagle South Africa 2018 representing Gauteng.

She has applied to participate in this national ‘beauty with brains and purpose pageant’ because she wants to empower young girls to know that dreams that are delayed are not denied.

She doesn’t just want to be a model. She is choosing to be a role model to millions of girls, encouraging them to always believe in themselves and stand up strongly for what they believe in no matter what.

She wants to empower young girls to walk tall and be comfortable in their own skin, be proud of themselves despite their skin tone, race, class or background and to always focus on their strengths, realise their fullest potential and be stubborn about achieving their dreams.

She believes that Miss Eagle South Africa 2018 should be a woman who is confident, passionate about life, relatable but most importantly a woman who has a story to tell that will inspire other young girls.

This pageant is extremely important to Tracey because it will offer her another opportunity to engage with millions of young girls from all walks of life and implement projects that will better the lives of all young girls in South Africa, but also the girls back in her hometown.

The Miss Eagle South Africa pageant aligns well with Tracey’s own life goals, and slots perfectly in with the work she began way back when she was still a child.

Tracey would be a huge asset to the pageant should she proceed further.

South Africa has been given the opportunity to vote for their Public Choice contestant for Miss Eagle South Africa 2018.

Those who believe that Tracey is deserving of that spot can cast their vote by SMSing TraceyLulo to 35334.

Each SMS costs R3.