Cecilia the young beauty with brains

Cecilia Godfrey made headlines just few weeks ago when she went to present her crown and medal she won at a beauty pageant at the Ministry of Information, Culture, Artists and Sports. For many, it came as a surprise that there was a young girl who went alone thousands of kilometers to represent her country in a beauty competition.

The 17-year-old became the first runner up in a competition named Miss Teen Heritage 2016 which was held in Sri Lanka late last year. Bringing together teens across the world including girls from other African countries such as Zimbabwe and South Africa.

However unlike many beauty competitions, this was a one woman show for Cecilia who had to struggle all alone to see that her dream to participate at the international beauty competition became a reality as it took her months of struggle and discouragement from people who thought she was just wasting her time for nothing.

Born and raised in Dodoma, Cecilia who just like many young girls aspired to be a fashion model when she grew up. But little did she know that the lives of models are often far less glamorous than they appear.

“I used to love modeling but I didn’t know where to begin but after completing my secondary education in 2015, I decided to engage more in the Fashion world. I moved to Dar es Salaam in December same year to live with my mother who by then was separated from my father,” she explains.

Thanks to social media she was able to meet some designers here in the country who connected her with an agency called fashion and Beauty Empire. Early 2016 she started modeling on various fashion shows such as ZIFF and Aliana fashion show.

“That was the beginning of my modeling career, I started to look for various competitions online however it wasn’t very easy since I didn’t have anyone to guide or assist me. Upon searching that is when I came across the Heritage Competition, I encouraged myself to apply,” says Cecilia

Joining the competition

Cecilia was accepted to participate after following all the initial procedures however things didn’t go as smooth as she planned when she started the procedure to look for necessary permits here in the country.

“I had to go to Basata to register myself and told them about the competition, they advised me to do more research on the competition so that I would be in a safe position of which I did. They told me to go back when my departing date was confirmed,” says the model.

Her road to success wasn’t smooth at all, despite the fact that she didn’t have money for tickets even getting a passport was also a struggle for her. She had to walk from one office to another to seek for assistance, nobody really believed in what she was trying to do.

“I remember the first time I went to apply for a passport, when I told them that I was going for a beauty competition, they were surprised. They asked me what kind of Miss was I because I didn’t have anyone to escort me or assist me. I wasn’t looking elegant as they expected. They doubted if I was really going to represent my country abroad especially at such a young age,” Cecilia speaks.

She says she made several trips to immigration offices but since they had doubts about her trip they made her go and return for several days thinking that maybe she would give up.

“It took me weeks just to complete the passport procedure. Everytime I went to do a follow up they would tell me something is missing. I got tired one day and started crying right there. I told them why didn’t they tell me to bring all the necessary materials at once. They asked me what kind of competition I was going to represent the country in at such a young age,” she recounts, adding, “they told me they wouldn’t allow me to go alone since they weren’t sure I was truly going for the said competition. They had their own concern that what if something went wrong.”

To be in a safe side she was asked to bring a letter from Basata, “ I told them since I wasn’t registered by Basata I would need Tsh75000 as a fee of which I didn’t have. They wondered how to help me if I wasn’t capable of bringing any evidence to them. One officer volunteered to give me the money so that I would go to Basata, since they doubted me they believed that I was not going to get the letter of recognition to them,”explains Cecilia.

One battle down, more to go

Luckily she was able to get the passport however she didn’t have money for the ticket and therefore she had to ask from friends and good Samaritans, but this didn’t yield any fruitful results. “Someone advised me to go to the ministry responsible with cultural affairs since the competition was based on heritage issues. I took courage and asked for assistance from the Ministry of Information, Youth, Culture, Artists and Sports but this struggle, just like others, had barren results,” she points.

With only the memory she had on what she was taught in school and the books she was given from the ministry about Tanzania’s culture, that was all the information she had about our culture, and that’s all she was able to take with her to the competition abroad.

With determination, she was able to do her best despite the fact that she was all alone since she didn’t have anyone to escort her.

“Other girls came with their committees which assisted them in everything.

In doing make up or taking them through the whole procedures but I had no one and so I had to do everything for myself but surprisingly I did wonders in every activity we did. I was able to woe their hearts and so I made my life much easier. I did my best to advertise a lot of things about my country; the culture and traditions and all its natural beauty,” Cecilia proudly explains.

Explaining what the competition meant to her and if she would risk so much to do it again, she said yes she would.

“This was a life time experience that I would cherish my whole life despite the fact that I went through a lot to make it to the competition. I had no money at all, even pocket money was hard to come by, let alone money for the ticket. But I had that belief in me that everything will work out well,” says Cecilia.

She says until the very last day she was supposed to leave the country she had no money to pay for the ticket she booked, “ When I think of it I feel sad and happy at the same time. I can still remember how that day my mother and I begged the ticket agency to allow me to pay Shs1,800,000 promising to pay the remaining balance in installment because we were late to pay for the ticket. I got the money on the same day from a good Samaritan.”

Buying a national flag

Cecilia remembers how she was late for her plane because she also had to buy a small national flag so that she could be officially endorsed by the authority.

“Since I was going for an International competition, I was supposed to be handed the national flag officially but I was told by the authorities in charge that they had run out of the flags so I had to go and buy a small one so that they could hand it to me, of which I did.

At the Miss Teen Heritage International, Cecilia managed to attain the 1st runner-up position, and also won other individual accolades in different disciplines.

I was sad that the day I left and even the day I returned from the competition, no one was there to congratulate me and support me apart from my mother. The cabin crew were very happy for me, they treated me like a princess,” Cecilia happily explains.

Now that she is back and as we often tend to think of models as glamorous creatures traveling in expensive cars and having a good life, that is far from what life is actually like, particularly for a girl like Cecilia.

She still has a long way to go and she is determined to see her modeling career take her to an International level, “I am still young but I want to see myself go places with my modeling career. What I went through has taught me a lot about this modeling industry in the country. One needs to help him or herself in order to go places because there is no such thing as helping each other in this industry,” she points.

Cecilia says, God willing, she wants to see herself in runways with top fashion models. As long as she managed to go to a foreign country and did well then everything is possible if she sets her mind to it.

Rehema Nyambula, another upcoming model, echoes the cry of many young models in the country who are often exploited by agencies and other stake holders in the fashion and beauty business. “Yes, models do not live a fabulous lifestyle as purported, but we are compelled to fake such a lifestyle because with modeling, image is everything,” she states. She advises young girls involved in the fashion industry, and those aspiring to become models, not to lose sense of reality in the industry.

Cecilia says there are a lot of misleading conceptions about what the modeling life is like and that is due to the nature of the job. “Girls working in the modeling industry are negatively described as prostitutes but what I understand is that it all depends on someone’s attitude and mindset.

There are a lot of girls who have done big things in the industry and are respected for that and also there are numerous people who are struggling to make ends meet or hoping for their chance to become successful, all we need to do is encourage them and the government needs to see that modeling can be well recognised at the national level and promote girls who wish to pursue a career in that field,” she notes.

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