“Most nights I walked alone for about three kilometres on my way home. I dreaded dark corners and scary jacaranda tree shades. It was worse when there was no electricity and street lamps were off. The darkness was scary. I risked being raped or mugged but I did not have an option. I had to keep on walking.”
BY GODWIN MUZARI
This statement reads like an excerpt from memoirs of a vendor trading at an evening market in some crime-ridden township, yet these were words from a beauty queen in an upmarket suburb.
When vivacious Valerie Chingonzo narrates the story of her life, she does so with elaborations that would stir emotions in any listener. Her story threatens to blur her beauty but a charming smile and attractive look in her eyes tell you there is a celebratory end to this tale.
Only when she sighs and announces she has just been crowned Miss Universities would you also be able to smile with her.
Scooping the crown means her hours of walking in the dark are now history. It means she now drives a Toyota Vitz. It means she has US$500 in cash to fuel the car for her trips in the foreseeable future. It also means she can spend the next year saving any income that comes her way because she no longer has to pay tuition fees.
The recently crowned queen is a student at Women’s University in Africa and stays in Avondale. She is studying towards a degree in Women and Gender Studies and attends evening lessons. She finishes lectures after 8pm and the aspect of walking home at night is what she dreaded most about her studies.
“I could not afford to hire a cab daily because my mother, a single parent, actually struggled to raise tuition fees for my studies. We got assistance from my sister in the United States. Now I can tell my sister to save the money because my fees for the whole of next year will be paid as part of the package of being crowned Miss Universities.
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“I always asked ‘Lord will I walk in the night for three years?’ and the answer came with winning this crown”.
Besides the car, fees voucher and cash prize, she was also offered a scholarship to study for an executive business management diploma with a local college. She also relishes the opportunities that come with her crown.
The 22-year-old beauty got the ticket to Miss Universities after being crowned Miss Women’s University in Africa.
Chingonzo said she previously participated in many other pageants
