Twenty-five-year-old Ghanaian beauty queen, Rebecca Asamoah, who was adjudged first runner-up at the 2017 Miss United Nations World pageant in Jamaica last week, has returned home with a call on her country and government to support the beauty industry.

According to her, Ghana should take advantage of pageantry to shape society, emphasizing that a special attention should be paid to the social intervention projects carried out by the pageants across the country.

The beautiful lady, who hoisted her country’s flag high out there in Jamaica, arrived at the Kotoka International Airport on a Delta Airline at about 8:30am on Saturday.

She was given a heroic welcome by her parents, other beauty queens, including winners of Miss Tourism Ghana, Miss Face of Nation and the media.

Speaking to the media, she indicated that there are so many ways the country can use pageantry to influence society positively other than the negative connotations that the industry has been enjoying over the years.

She urged individuals, corporate bodies, government organisations to support great ideas from some of these pageants and their ambassadors.

“It is not just about the crown but it’s about touching lives. The most important thing is touching lives, changing someone’s life, making someone believe that anything under the sun is possible. I’m going to embark on a project under education, health and environment…I believe this project is a collective responsibility and I can’t do everything on my own but with the aid of other pageantries winners I believe I can do something remarkable for the country Ghana,” she added.

The dental hygienist beat several others among 80 contestants from different countries to come close to winning the 2017 Miss United Nation crown, which went to Olga Makhlevskaia from Russia.

She placed first runner-up, becoming first Ghanaian to win on the platform. Mexican queen, Irais Carbajal, came the second runner-up.

It is Rebecca’s third win in three years after she was earlier crowned Miss Ghana 2015 runner-up and winner of Miss Africa Continent in South Africa. Besides, she is the first Ghanaian queen to be on the Miss United Nations stage.

The Miss United Nations is a humanitarian pageant which helps to better the lives of persons around the world. It identifies and showcases world’s best tourism cause ambassadors; those who have the skills, talents and personalities best suited to promote their respective countries in furtherance of tourism, international goodwill and cultural harmony. Apart from a strong emphasis on goodwill tourism protection programmes and destinations promotion, the pageant also supports environmental protection via strategised programmes.

Indeed, the crown comes with a lot of responsibilities and Rebecca says, “I’m going to work towards that.”