Nashua, the deaf Miss Uganda contestant who dreams of walking away with the crown
What you need to know:
Nineteen-year-old Patience Nashua was one of the 21 finalists that were unveiled and yes, she is special
Over the weekend, twenty one beauty queens were selected as finalists for this year’s Miss Uganda beauty pageant which will eventually see one girl crowned as Miss Uganda later this year. The 21 finalists were unveiled at a public event that happened at Kampala Serena Hotel – Katonga Hall.
The beauty queens were selected after a month of regional tours that started on January 9 in West Nile before heading to northern Uganda, Fort Portal, Masaka, and finally Kampala for the final pre-selection that happened on February 8 and 9.
Nineteen-year-old Patience Nashua was one of the 21 finalists that were unveiled and yes, she is special. At the unveiling, she walks into the stage with a lot of confidence and her smile gives the impression that she wishes she could say something without the help of a sign language interpreter, but it can’t happen.
Born in 2004 her mother painfully narrates the shock she got when her daughter started having hearing difficulties at age 6. Her effort to get help was greeted with stories from some quarters who thought it was witchcraft. Soon both Nashua's speech and hearing senses were gone and the single mum had to look for answers alone.
Luckily, Nashua was able to get help from good samaritans that managed to get through her education. After completing school, Patience decided to look for something to make her earn a living to help her mother financially. Her friend connected her to a shop in Nakawa where she learnt how to brew coffee, which she is now doing to earn a living.
Joining Miss Uganda
Nashua has always loved modeling, so she used the little resources she had to make research pageantry and this led her to the Miss Uganda page. She decided to contact the office asking to be part of the Miss Uganda 2023 competition. The girl with a big dream hails from Butalejja District Eastern part of the country wowed the judges with her charm and confidence to make her way to the finals.
She, with the help of her interpreter, managed to beat over 200 girls during the Kampala Auditions and will be going to the boot camp hoping that she can walk away with the Miss Uganda crown and represent the country at Miss World.
