All the African queens who contested in this year’s Miss World beauty and fashion festival at the Earl’s Court in London will bring their beauty and brains to Ghana, at a date yet to be announced, to support Miss Ghana 2010, Stephanie Adwoa Adjeiwaa Karikari, to raise funds in aid of the children and mothers at the Accra city slum, Sodom and Gomorrah.

The African queens visit will be under the auspices of the Miss World Organisation and Miss Ghana 2010’s charity, the ADJEIWAA Foundation, which will be launched soon.

This follows Stephanie’s crowning as the joint 2011 Miss World Beauty With A Purpose winner. She shared the honours with Miss Indonesia, Astrid Ellena Indriana Yunadi, who also undertook a social development project in her country.

Miss Ghana 2005, Lamisi Mbillah, also won the same title at the 2006 Miss World event.

A statement issued by the Miss World Organisation, national licence holders of the Miss World event, said they were also “actively encouraged to support worthy projects such as the one being undertaken by Stephanie.” The statement also urged Stephanie to “volunteer your time and raise funds for projects.”

The Beauty with A Purpose Award singled out Ghana’s Stephanie Karikari and Indonesia’s Astrid Yunadi and recognised them for showing that they had made a real difference to people in need in their respective homelands. They were thus guaranteed continued support for their chosen causes by the Miss World Organisation.

In an interview with The Mirror, Ghana’s representative at this year’s Miss World event and Miss Ghana 2010, Stephanie Karikari, said she was extremely happy with the Beauty With A Purpose award because she literally squeezed money out of stone to undertake the project at Sodom and Gomorrah in Accra and was glad it won her the prize.

She said she had to save money and also get some financial support from her parents to undertake the project. “I did not receive any cash sponsorship from official sources but Melcom Supermarket and Auto Plaza helped with some products, and I thank them sincerely for that.”

“Having won such a huge award the hard way has made me more mature,” she told The Mirror and thanked e-TV’s J. O. T. Agyemang for his encouragement.

Stephanie said she was planning to host a Charity Ball in February 2012 to raise funds for deprived children at Sodom and Gomorrah, especially those under five years and their mothers. The focus of the project would be on the provision of education for the children and some employment opportunities for their mothers, many of whom are single.

The Miss World 2011 crown went to Miss Venezuela, Ivian Lunasol Sarcos Colivienares, a 22-year-old Human Resource graduate who currently works with a broadcasting company.

The first and second runners-up were Miss Philippines, Gwendoline Ruais, 21, a Business Management graduate who has expertise in marketing; and Miss Puerto Rico, 19-year-old Amanda Victoria Vilanova Perez who is an undergraduate student in Comparative Literature, respectively.

The show was presented by Jason Cook, star of hit US shows, ‘Days Of Our Lives’ and ‘General Hospital’ and veteran hostess, Angela Chow of ‘Good Morning China’ fame.

British street dance troupe, Diversity, opened the show with some superb dance pieces and also came on in-between the various segments of the event to fire up the audience with some solid dance moves.

Other performers were British pop group, Blue, and the winner of the ‘2009 Britain’s Got Talent,’ Ramin Karimloo, who is also an artiste from London West End’s longest running musicals, the Phantom of the Opera.

The winners in this year’s contest were chosen by a panel of judges led by the Chairman of the Miss World Organisation, Julia Morley.

The rest of the team were former Miss World winners: Denise Perrier, 1953; Antigone Costanda (1954); Ann Sidney (1964); Cindy Breakspeare (1976): Linda Petursdottir (1988); Agbani Darego (2001); Zhang Zi Lin (2007), Ksenia Sukhinova (2008) and Kaine Aldorino (2009).

The 2012 Miss World event is scheduled to take place in Ordos, Mongolia.

The former South African President and global liberation icon, Mr Nelson Mandela, in a speech read on his behalf by his grandson, Chief Mandela, congratulated Stephanie and Astrid on their effort to support the poor and also commended the Miss World Organisation for coming up with the ‘Beauty With A Purpose’ idea to help the disadvantaged in society.