The first ever Plus Size African Beauty Pageant to be held in Nigeria gathers momentum as the organizer, Vichiano Services Limited, has rolled out its schedule of events and programmes, commencing with an  awareness campaign on fibroid and fertility  with  The fibroid Clinic in  Lagos as medical partners.

Vichiano, in an infortainment approach, is using the Miss Plus-size African Beauty Pageant brand as a yardstick to promote the campaign.

In a release made available to newsrooms and signed by Victoria Iheakonye, the casting for the contest would be held in six different zones of the country so as to give room for more participants to showcase their natural endowments.

According to Miss Iheakonye,” plus size is a virtue and blessing which has been turned to a thing of shame, sorrow and humiliation through wrong perception.

We are going to bring the best of the plus size ladies out  and save them from the psychological torment and stigma which they are being subjected to. This contest will bring to the fore, the unique attributes and skills of the plus size ladies and let the public realize that they are better in all things than the slim girls.”

Miss Iheakonye called on the plus size ladies to come out en mass for the contest as to prove that “what a slim girl can do, a plus-size girl can do better.”

She revealed that “We just feel that the plus size ladies are being neglected and being looked down upon in the society just because God, in his infinite mercy, decided to bless them more than the others. This is why we are coming out with this contest and making everything simple, affordable and accessible. That is the reason we pegged the registration fees at just 2000 naira only.”

Miss Iheakonye said, “We want participation from all parts of Nigeria, hence we are kicking off the casting sequentially from Lagos on July 24 – 26 July, and move to Ibadan on 29 – 31, followed by Asaba on 3 – 5 August  and the train moves to Port – Harcourt on 8 – 10 August, then moves to Uyo between 13 – 15 August and berthed finally in Abuja on 18 – 20 August.”

To make the information available to to all, the organiser has opened a website for the programme “We also realised the need to make the information available to all. We have just constructed a web site.www.plussizeafricanpageant,com where interested ladies can have access  to information, register and send information to us too, as we have decked the site with all our call lines and contact addresses, the premium prize which is a car  and all  other necessary details.”

Miss Iheakonye also revealed that the Plus Size African Beauty Pageant would also embark on advocacy walk for fibroids. “We are also embarking on walk for fibrods as a way to sensitize the nation on the havoc which this  disease quietly wreak on womanhood.”