By Anita Mvane, Lukhanyiso Khanyile and Charial Reynders
A Gauteng-based Makhanda beauty queen with a passion for community service has high hopes of being crowned Miss Intercontinental South Africa 2024, so she can go back home and inspire the youth and uplift her community.
Nkosinaye Same, 28, entered Miss Intercontinental South Africa towards the end of 2023 and is a semi-finalist.
The Makhanda-born model says her advocacy is to inspire hope by bringing meaningful and impactful change in disadvantaged communities.
“I’ve always wanted to join bigger platforms such as Miss Intercontinental South Africa which give young women like me the opportunity to go represent South Africa in another country, in Egypt to be specific. So I knew that one day I will go for it, but just after I’m done with the big local pageants – the likes of Miss Gauteng Exclusive and Miss Jozi.
She admits she experienced challenges when she had to knock on doors of companies for sponsorship. But with creativity and strategic thinking, she created her own poster to make the event more visible to the public, and at the same time continuing with contacting potential sponsors for purchase of the tickets.
She has until the end of June to sell all of the tickets.
“My goal is to be the representation that young black, Xhosa girls and boys need to see to be inspired to chase their dreams.”
Her first plan should she attain the Miss Intercontinental South Africa title is to go back home, in Makhanda, and visit schools to do motivational talks and visit the Home of Joy Care Centre once again. “I’m doing it so that they can see that it’s possible even for someone coming from small communities.”
She also hopes to represent her country at Miss Intercontinental in Egypt. “I plan to raise my country’s flag high and proudly display the values that our country holds.”
She wants her community to be proud of their very own, “but most importantly I want that title to inspire girls and boys from my community to dream big and achieve them no matter the circumstances”.
Same has a burning passion for community service. At one point she was drawn to “The Grace Foundation”, and decided to do voluntary work for it. She says she was drawn to the foundation by its main goal of focusing on identifying needs within communities and finding ways to meet those needs. “That to me was a catcher.”
She started studying at Rhodes University in 2016 and finished her Honours in 2020 during the Covid-19 pandemic time. Her highlight was joining the Community Engagement (RUCE). “It was a life changing experience to have visited the “Home of Joy” children’s home. I also had a chance to mentor a grade 12 young lady who went on to pass with a Bachelor pass.”
“I was also honoured to be elected as chairperson of a new society – AFM-SCM which brought students together through prayer meetings and academic sessions.”
In 2023, Same started a foundation called Empower with Nkosinaye with a main focus on bringing meaningful change in disadvantaged communities. It focuses on upliftment programmes for young people.
She has held a workshop/Business Expo to help entrepreneurs to develop their businesses. Her foundation also focuses on campaigns such as feeding schemes – mostly for people on streets, and the Restore Her Dignity pad drive to keep a girl in school. These are initiatives aimed at helping young people.
