Marere gets her moment in India

Bulawayo Bureau

ZIMBABWEAN model Pauline Marere was crowned the second runner-up at the recently-held Miss Environment International 2023 pageant that was held in Mumbai, India.

The winner was 28-year-old Shannon Robinson from the Philippines and runners-up were Flora Puira of Cameroon, Marere, Romane Alvies of Sri Lanka and Savannah Robyn of the United Kingdom. They were awarded the titles Miss Flora and Fauna, Miss Ecosystem, Miss Aqua and Miss Paradigm, respectively.

Marere, the reigning Miss Environment Zimbabwe who returned to the country last week, said she was happy that her modelling career is growing.

“Having started modelling in 2018, my journey has been full of joy because I’ve been winning most of the competitions locally and internationally. These include Miss Pan Africa 2019 in Nigeria and Miss Africa Continent in South Africa in 2018. I was crowned Miss Culture International’s first runner-up and second runner-up at the recently concluded Miss Environment International where I clinched the Miss Environment Ecosystem title,” said Marere.

She said though it was not her first time to represent the country globally, the Indian experience was amazing.

“The support I received when I was in India was overwhelming and I learnt a lot. In India individuals can sustain their livelihoods on modelling and I wish the same could happen in Zimbabwe,” said Marere.

On her role as Miss Environment Zimbabwe and Miss Ecosystem, she said her focus is on running programmes to teach people on the importance of protecting the environment.

“I’m also running an environmental project titled ‘Catch them young’ where I teach children in pre-school and primary schools what climate change is and encourage them to plant citrus trees at their schools,” said Marere.

Miss Environment Zimbabwe national director Ishmael Murangandi popularly known as The Crown Hunter who accompanied Marere to India paid tribute to the pageant’s local organiser Tichaona Nigel Shamu for making their trip a success.

He said his take home from the global pageant was that the involvement of women in burning global issues has led to success in tackling some of the global problems such as climate change.