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Recently returned from
South Africa, where she represented Guyana on
the world stage, the reigning Miss Guyana World
Imarah Radix is continuing her charity work and
hopes to make an impact in the lives of disadvantaged
children in Tiger Bay and Buxton.
When The Scene caught up
with Imarah over a month ago, she still trying
to regroup from the very hectic schedule she had
during the Miss World pageant in South Africa.
But she made no bones about wanting to make a
real impact in the lives of persons who are less
fortunate.
The Miss World pageant
was the first Imarah participated in, as she was
selected to represent Guyana; there was no Miss
Guyana World pageant last year. And while she
is someone who loves fashion and has modelled
and even had her face on a GT&T billboard,
Imarah said she was never really too inclined
to be part of pageants.
She told The Scene that
she accepted to be part of the Miss World pageant
because of the ‘Beauty with a Purpose’ motto as
“it was something I was very interested in because
I have been a humanitarian all my life, interested
in the poor — helping them in any way I can… To
be beautiful is one part but to have things to
back it up and really make a difference in the
world… was really perfect for me…
“That is what inspired
me, the beauty with a purpose motto… I have used
it [the pageant] also as a platform for my charity
work. Before now, not a lot of people knew I did
charity work but now it has been …in the
news so people are aware of what I am doing,”
she told The Scene.
While she did not win the
‘Beauty with a Purpose’ award, Imarah said her
work was commended by the pageant coordinators.
The Oxford Brookes University
graduate said she is also proud of the fact that
franchise owner Ken Chung received a call from
the pageant coordinators informing him that she
was the best candidate from Guyana to date. The
coordinators told Chung they were really pleased
with her attitude, her punctuality and friendliness
to the other contestants, as she helped them.
She remembered that baboons
that broke into Miss Angola’s room while she was
out and tore it apart. “She was crying and screaming
and she didn’t want to go on. So I helped her
to stay in the competition… I had to make her
get ready and stop crying and go out there and
put her best foot forward… So we are really good
friends now.”
Her stay in South Africa
while hectic, Imarah said, was a memorable experience.
Among other things, she toured the home of the
great South African leader Nelson Mandela and
the country’s President Jacob Zuma.
And she said that her experience
with the many young ladies from different countries
was nothing but special.
“We all got on very well.
It wasn’t just a competition. There was no stress,
no arguments, no in-fighting none of that kind
of thing. It was like we were all sisters,” she
told The Scene.
However, the competition
was “pretty tough” and there was “a lot of competitiveness”
but she was happy to have made it to the final
18 of the talent segment with her performance
of Etta Jones’ “At Last”.
“I felt really honoured
to have reached that level with only a very short
preparation time for my talent, so to place was
an honour,” Imarah, who was chosen just two months
before the Miss World pageant, said.
She did so well in the
talent segment–she was assisted by Kross
Kolor Records in “perfecting my talent” —
that is why Imarah feels she may now be able to
begin her singing career.
Because of her year’s reign
as Miss Guyana World, Imarah has deferred her
place on a Master’s Degree course in International
Relations and Diplomacy at the University College
Kensington in London. She said that while she
plans to participate in one other pageant – Miss
Caribbean World – she will not be a contestant
in any other local pageant.
Imarah’s sense of adventure,
she said, has seen her visiting countries such
as Egypt, Margarita Island in Venezuela, Thailand,
Nigeria and many European countries. She hopes
that this year will see her visiting Fiji because
of her interest in scuba diving.
Imarah was born in Grenada
to a Guyanese mother and a Grenadian father who
passed away a few years ago when she was 18. She
described her father as “a very complex man, very
brilliant, who fought for the rights of underprivileged
people in Grenada… that’s why i have such
a strong urge to really champion the rights of
the underprivileged, no matter where I am.”
Imarah’s father, Kenrick
Radix, came from a well-known Grenadian family
and was a lawyer who served as Minister of Legal
Affairs in the Maurice Bishop government. He later
returned to private practice and died after years
of illness. Her mother Shahiba, served as Chief
of Protocol in the Maurice Bishop government.
According to Shahiba, whose mother was from Buxton
and her father from Berbice, the Radixes are known
in Grenada as being the first Black family to
become professionals in the island.
Imarah said she was away
in England studying when her father passed away
and her mother then returned to Guyana for what
was expected to be a temporary visit. But Hurricane
Ivan hit the island, flattened the house they
called home and destyroyed most of their possessions
– hence their now permanent status in this country.
While she went to boarding
school in England from the age of 15, Imarah said
she always holidayed in Guyana and Grenada and
knew all of her relatives.
Imarah hopes to one day
become a diplomat but should that not become a
reality, she hopes to work with a non-governmental
organisation focusing on human rights – she has
a keen interest in the rights of the child.
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