First ever Miss Junior Seychelles Zambia staged |04 July 2015

Seychelles tourism ambassador in Zambia Jimmy Butt came up with an amazing initiative to propel the spirit of unity within Seychellois living abroad and promote the sense of patriotism among citizens in diaspora.

As Seychelles celebrated its National Day on June 29, a group of Seychellois families living in Zambia got together for a first of a kind Miss Junior Seychelles Zambia. Aimed at encouraging children aged 3-12 years old to use their imagination and present something unique about Seychelles by relating them to the National Day event.

Miss Junior Seychelles Zambia attained, according to Jimmy Butt, its core objective of “making the children proud to be Seychellois”. The young and enthusiastic contestants battling for the title of Miss Junior Seychelles Zambia took turns identifying the colours of the Seychelles flag and talked about their favourite creature found in Seychelles.

The winning title went to Ariana Butt. According to her dad Jimmy Butt, Ariana who “loves tortoises” spoke passionately about her favourite creature and “almost got all the colours of the flag correct”. During the event, the little contestants also took turns answering the parents’ questions about Seychelles, to entice them to “develop and maintain the love of their native country”. They were asked to pick a song and paraded in an outfit of their choice.

“Ariana impressed everyone by choosing Joe Samy’s song Bienvenue aux Seychelles.  She won the biggest applause and was pronounced Miss Junior Seychelles Zambia,” Jimmy Butt said.

This event scored high creating a sense of patriotism among the children.

“We wanted to share with our children and bring to the attention of all Seychellois families living abroad, that we can and should find ways of celebrating National Day in a way that makes our children proud to be Seychellois,” said Mr Butt.

Mr Butt said he plans to bring the event to a larger scale in 2016.