Mihret Abebe wins
Miss World Ethiopia 2007
 By
Alemayehu Seife-Selassie
ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia – At a beauty competition that was
held last Tuesday, Mihret Abebe a young high school student from
the town of Awassa won the Miss World Ethiopia 2007 title.
In the show which started late at 9:30 p.m. and ended past 1:30
a.m., twelve semi finalists were selected from which the contestants
were scaled down to five and Lula Gezu was preceded by the MWE
2007 Mihret Abebe where as Hibret Fekadu ended up 2nd runner-up.
The show that aims to send the winner to Sanya, China to compete
for the international Miss World title on December 05, started
a year ago by a company named Artaele Enterprise. Previous to
this year’s show the pageant has been organized by Phoenix
Promotions - Eric De Wouters and Gadol Ton, MWE 2004 Jeromawit
- Jerusalem Ketema and Gadol Ton, MWE 2005 Phoenix Promotions
- Eric DeWouters and Gadol Ton and last year where there was no
show but the 2nd runner up from the MWE 2005, Amleset Muchie was
sent to take part in the 2006 Miss World Phoenix Promotion’s
- Eric DeWouters was the organizer with Gadol Ton. For MWE 2007
this year’s organizer is Artaele’s Tesfazghi Abera.
For this year’s show 70 contestants have registered fitting
the criteria and 24 finalists were chosen by the company. Four
judges, among whom the Miss World Ethiopia and Continental Queen
of Africa 2003 Miss Hayat Ahmed was one, judged the event.
“We have taken serious care for the contestants not to notice
the judges so that our show would end up being fair. And we have
not received any comments that suggest that the show was unfair.
We have asked for the previous contestants and previous pageant
winners so that we could learn from previous mistakes”,
Tesfaegzi Abera the managing director of Artaele stated.
On top of the lengthy process the crowd was observing starting
from 9:30 pm, the organizers state that the show was on for even
longer period of time starting from 2:00 p.m. where judges were
screening the contestants behind the stage in a swimsuit competition.
The judges have to know the contestants on a one to one basis
to know each other.
The organizers of the show stated that during the six months time
the winner will have a training program. And the Miss World Ethiopia
2007 Mihert Abebe on her part stated that she would use that time
to study the history of Ethiopia and will look for what types
of materials she should focus on to help her portray her country’s
positive images better. “I am going to work hand in hand
with the other contestants to pick the right images that I could
talk about to the rest of the world”, she said.
The 1st runner up for the competition Lula on her part noted that
the 15 days training and eliminating process she and her colleagues
went through had been educational and fair. The 2nd runner up
in the competition Hibret Fekadu said, “Don’t ask
me why I ended up being a 3rd place, but the show held was fair
and square”. Both the contestants stated that they would
love to work on the projects such as the 250 female HIV orphans
visit they have had and the tree planting they have started with
the 24 finalists.
The managing director for Artaele Tsegaye C. Didana on his part
stated that they have had 450 audiences where as over a 100 had
to turn away because the hall was filled.
Winner of the Miss Awassa 2005 beauty competition, Mihret Abebe
is not new to winning a pageant, but winning the Miss World Ethiopia
a show that will take her to China to compete against the world’s
best is a thrill. But she also stated that competing from the
countryside and winning in Ethiopia also signifies that beauty
queens are found all over the country.
Among the trophies the winner will be granted, a grant in money
is one, but the organizers declined to comment on the amount.•
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