Beauty with a purpose is this year’s theme for the Miss World beauty pageant and Malaysia’s beauty representative, Larissa Ping Liew, is making sure she meets all the requirements.
With her traditional Orang Ulu music instrument, the sape, by her side and her beautiful personality, Larissa, 19, is determined to woo the judges and audience in Sanya, China, where the Miss World beauty pageant is being held this year.
Her seven weeks preparation for the pageant took Larissa and her team all the way to the Kelabit community’s settlement in Long Seridan. The project was one of the requirements by the beauty pageant’s organisers to all the contestants to give back to the community.
“Long Seridan is a Kelabit village surrounded by the Penan settlements and with my project, I want to give back to the kids in Baram, where my mum comes from,” she told the media at a press conference in Kuching recently.
Having been to Long Seridan myself, I know how difficult it is to get to the remote villages in Sarawak and I do admire her willingness to go to such a distance to help the rural community out with her project.
Larissa also disclosed to the media that she is happy to be able to raise RM50,000 for her project and 80 per cent of the money will go to the Penan pupils of SK Long Seridan.
“These children are so far behind in terms of education and some benefits and I just want to reach out to these indigenous children through my project which my team called the ‘Digital Outreach project’,” Larissa said.
She said they brought computers to the schoolchildren which were sponsored by Yayasan Sarawak.
“Interestingly, these students do not have a lot of knowledge in information technology. We also built a lot of murals as outlets for these children to express their dreams and we also have empowerment sessions with the children as well,” she said of her experiences in Long Seridan.
“These children cannot go on with their education because of their financial situations and we hope that the funds given to them will enable them to continue on to next year until we could see the results from this project so that we could reached out to more kids (in Sarawak),” she said.
On her beauty pageant quest, Larissa said she is ready to compete with the other contestants in Sanya, China and her ‘strength’ to compete will “most definitely for the Beauty With A Purpose theme”, she said.
“As for talent, I will be playing the sape and I will also be showing off my beautiful dress,” she added.
Larissa also disclosed that she hoped to obtain a Bachelor’s Degree in Education and she is, currently, a Pre-U student with the Health University.
About Miss World 2018
Miss World is the oldest running international beauty pageant. 120 contestants have confirmed their participation in the 68th edition of the Miss World pageant. The finals is scheduled to take place in Sanya, China on December 8, 2018.
According to the Chairman and CEO of the Miss World Organisation, Julia Morley, Beauty with a Purpose which started in 1972 is the heart of Miss World, with each country choosing a project close to their home presenting their projects at Miss World.
The Miss World Organisation owns and manages the annual Miss World Finals, a competition that has grown into one of the world’s biggest. Since its launch in 1951, the Miss World organisation has raised more than £250 million for children’s charities that help disabled and underprivileged children. Miss World is franchised in more than 100 countries.
