Another beauty queen with farming on her mind

At five feet and three inches tall, one would wonder what Natasha Charlotte Kamusiime is doing in the catwalk and beauty pageant world. But what she lacks in height, she makes up for in vivacity. She exudes confidence. Every five minutes, she is giving off tips on how agriculture can really be a cash cow for farmers.

It is clear that besides being on the catwalk, the 20-year-old Social Sciences student from Makerere University would be comfortable on the farm.

“Agriculture is not all about digging,” she enthuses, continuing, “That is where most people in the city get it wrong. You can make money as a middleman. At some point, I will also engage in active farming. A few weeks from now, I am going to visit some farms near Luweero District to learn how to rear pigs without the bad smell.”

The catwalk tale
Kamusiime is the August 20, 2016 winner of the Jewel of the Nile beauty pageant. It was a charitable pageant – the first of its kind – where one of the criteria for judging the 20 finalists was their hands-on approach to a community activity and raising money for a charity of choice. In the course of her work, Kamusiime raised Shs900,000 for Teens Uganda.

“Teens Uganda is a youth-based organisation that helps orphans, especially the girl child. The orphans are given practical skills that can help them create jobs such as making biogas, briquettes, and developing backyard gardens using jerry cans and bottles.”

Entering the pageant
The petit model heard about the competition from a friend who had seen the advert on social media.
“She came to me saying since I loved everything to do with beauty, I should join. I enlisted another friend and we went for the auditions together. There were over 100 girls there and when I saw them, I lost hope. They were so tall, wearing high heels and looking so serious.”

This was not Kamusiime’s first time in this world, though. She had done the catwalk before for Cavalli Modeling Agency and in between modeling jobs, she decided to quit.

“You need to be tall to do the catwalk. I would audition and people would say I walked properly but I was too short. It made me feel bad. But I consoled myself with the fact that rejection is part of this industry. You have to learn to deal with it. There will always be that one person who will like your style.”

Winning the contest
She must have found that person in the Jewel on the Nile contest judges because she passed the three rounds of auditions. The judges included Joram Muzira of Joram Model Management and former Miss Uganda Fiona Bizzu. At the finalist stage, there were only 12 girls left.

“I was confident I would be among the best three. There is more to it than just being tall. I had better confidence, better facts about my charity of choice, and I had a higher level of intelligence compared to the other contestants. Even still, I was really surprised when I came first.”

At the end of the night, Kamusiime was crowned the first Jewel of the Nile. She also became the first ambassador of The Nancy Mugga Foundation, which sponsored the entire event.

Life now
“I’m still carrying out different charitable work. Last week, I gave a talk at The Youth Festival to inspire young girls. I’m also working with community based organisations which have an agricultural focus so that I can help the youth get out of unemployment.”Besides the catwalk and social events the model, who weighs 50kgs, says she loves eating.