Katarina Rodriguez fails to win Miss World’s Beauty with a Purpose award

MANILA, Philippines – Miss World Philippines 2018 Katarina Rodriguez apologized to fans after her Beauty with a Purpose video failed to make it as a finalist in the competition.

The Beauty with a Purpose the Miss World charity arm. Each candidate is required to do a video to share about their advocacy. For Katarina, she chose to talk about Project Become, which focuses the kids of Marawi.

In her post, Katarina said that she was sad that her video did not qualify as one of the finalists for a “violation.” She said she did not know of the specific provision, which she did not mention. 

“It hurt me that I did not qualify for BWAP more than anything else has in the past because I wanted the world to see what war and violence does to real life people. Miss World has guidelines and sadly, I had no briefing about them before creating my BWAP, other than the time limit. I owe an apology to Mrs. Morley and the Miss World Organization as well for not having followed the set guidelines. I meant no disrespect and wish I had known. I also wanted to say thank you for generating this powerful channel for us to give our hearts to,” she said.

“Nevertheless as I’ve said you can only ever expect truth from me. My BWAP is reality. It’s a reality in Marawi, in Syria, in Myanmar, in Chile, India, Libya, South Africa, Palestine, Ecuador and in communities where discrimination against race, religion, gender and culture occur.

“Where peace lacks, everything else becomes present. Peace education is so important because it will teach the children and youth the differences between people and promote acceptance over exclusion. It’s a simple solution to war & violence and other stigmas WORLD WIDE. My BWAP focuses now on the community in Marawi, but my vision for the Teach Peace Build Peace Movement is GLOBAL.”

The video shows Katarina travelling to Marawi, where she meets with soldiers and families affected by the conflict. Together with a group of friends, she launched Project Become, which aims to teach kids about peace.

The Beauty with a Purpose award was given to Nepal’s Shrinkhala Khatiwada, who also got the Multimedia award.  – Rappler.com