As part of activities marking the beginning of preparations for the first edition of 2008 Miss Galaxy Africa Beauty Pageant in The Gambia, the organizers convened a press conference last week at Sheraton Hotel in Brufut, in a bid to raise awareness on the contest.

Speaking at the press conference, Ms Princess Adaeze Jennifer Moneke, the president/CEO of Legacyjen International (LJI), franchise owners of Miss Galaxy Africa Beauty Pageant, indicated that the pageant was Africa's response to the Miss Galaxy International Beauty Pageant which, she said, was incorporated in Florida,USA, in 1999, by its founder, Dr Loli Sikorszky, and sustained by the new President, Maria T. Torres.

According to her, different categories of the event, along particular age limit, are staged in the US annually.

Without losing sight of the vision and mission of the pageant, Miss Galaxy Africa seeks to celebrate beauty, culture, tourism, dress code/style and intelligence, she said.  

The beauty pageant, she went on, is open to girls, particularly undergraduate, from the age of 19-29 years,  who have the poise, confidence, eloquence, intelligence and inner beauty, and she added that it did not accept discrimination of any form, be it on grounds of colour, race, ethnicity or religion.

She said that winners of the Miss Galaxy Africa were looked up to as role models and are automatically treated as goodwill ambassadors of Africa in the Miss Galaxy International Pageant coming up in the USA.  "For this year's edition of Miss Galaxy Africa, tagged "Gambia 2008", LJI Nig Ltd is leaving no stone unturned in its bid to create a career opportunity for the participants, to turn them into role models and goodwill ambassadors, as well as to showcase Africa's culture to the international community", she stated.

The contestants for this year will be from Nigeria, Ghana and The Gambia and the prizes range from a brand new car to $1000 and many more.