(November 26, New Delhi, Sri Lanka Guardian) Among the 112 Miss World contestants is a special candidate who has already worked for 10 years as a community worker, since the age of 13: She is Miss Sri Lanka 2009, Gamya Wijayadasa.
Miss World organisers say that among the projects she has helped are:- A Laser Vision Eyesight Project, to restore sight of people suffering from cataracts; and - A welfare appeal which raised goods to help people displaced by war in northern Sri Lanka in the final stages of the country’s 3-decade-long war.
In a statement, Gamya Wijayadasa said: "I’ve achieved things I thought were impossible... Having a purpose to my being has been a way of life for me even before I knew what beauty was.
"Education has been the biggest source of power behind me...
"Every child in this world deserves a right to an education. Not only does it give them the opportunity of a better life but it will also give them the focus and the discipline to reach beyond the life that was carved out for them from birth by poverty, oppression and discrimination." -Sri Lanka Guardian
Miss Sri Lanka is a ‘beauty with a purpose’
