Role Model Foundation launches 3rd edition of Face of Gulu City contest 

Gulu |The 3rd edition of the Face of Gulu City beauty contest 2024 was launched by the Role Model Foundation last week. The overall winner will be announced on December 20, 2024, at the Bomah Hotel in Gulu

The theme of this year’s edition is “bringing community tourism centers in the Acholi subregion to light.”

The Face of Gulu City contest was founded in 2020 with the goal of empowering young girls to serve as role models in their communities by recognizing their unique beauty, talents, skills, and attributes to social causes and what they are passionate about.

Nassa Michelle Mich, current brand ambassador since 2023, stated that since becoming Gulu City’s beauty queen, she has seen many changes in her life in terms of social capital.

Mich stated that she decided to work with the local community to achieve similar goals, and she encouraged girls to apply for the third edition contest.

She did, however, criticize some young girls in Gulu City for compromising their values by accepting material love from men. “This requires a shift in mindset, and their spirits should be lifted because they are important members of the community.”

“Participating in the Face of Gulu City beauty contest will help promote the tourism industry.”

In addition to raising awareness of menstrual hygiene education and health issues pertaining to young girls, Nassa said she has spearheaded numerous school outreach programs to support education in the Acholi sub-region.

She urged government partners to come out and support the Face of Gulu City beauty contest, among other things, to promote tourism.

The Role Model Foundation’s founder and CEO, Justine Nelson Okeny, disclosed that the organization had roughly seven contestants in 2022, ten in 2023, and plans to keep the same number of contestants and interns this year.

In 2022, Queen Lokoroma Melisha Sharon was crown winner. In 2023, Lamaro Ariana won; Lamaro Keren Leinech was first runner-up and, Nassa Michelle Mich was crowned 2nd runner-up.

Okeny stated that the Role Model Foundation aims to brand Gulu City better than before through a variety of activities, including waste management, school and community outreach, and character development for young girls at the grassroots level.

“It was a great journey from 2022 to the present for our current Queen in moving to different districts of Acholi promoting and raising awareness on environmental conservation, health, menstrual hygiene, youth empowerment, and community dialogue,” Okeny stated.

He confirmed that the Face of Gulu City contest will not be able to accommodate slay queens and teenage mothers because beauty queens have many tasks and responsibilities to perform, including portraying a positive image of our Acholi culture.

Geroge Kidega Nicholas, Gulu City principal commercial officer said with “poor population” Acholi has, it makes the government less interested to fund tourism sector.

Kidega also noted that some politicians have selfish interests in misleading and diverting the local community’s focus on tourism.

“This sub-region still has limited transport means, limited knowledge of tour guides which need to be improved.”

As for Gulu City, he stated that they are attempting to identify and map all tourism sites and brand them as tourist attractions, claiming that the city does not yet have clear data on tourism sites and visitor numbers.

“Visitors only stay in hotels; we only welcome them in our offices. They always travel to neighboring districts because the city lacks gazetted sites to attract them,” the commercial officer explained.

Kidega makes a plea to the residents of Acholi to begin endorsing the work of the Role Model Foundation, stating that doing so will aid in marketing and uncover previously undiscovered locations in the Acholi sub-region.