KRISTY RAM­NAR­INE

kristy.ram­nar­ine@cnc3.co.tt

At just 21 years old, Kim­ber­ly Far­rah Singh stood proud­ly on the world stage, rep­re­sent­ing Trinidad and To­ba­go at the 2015 Miss World pageant in Sanya, Chi­na.

But her reign was far from a fairy­tale—it was a jour­ney marked by both tri­umph and tur­bu­lence.

Ear­ly on, Singh was stripped of her ti­tle by for­mer fran­chise hold­er Vanes­sa Sa­ha­too Man­no of One­ness En­ter­tain­ment Trinidad and To­ba­go Lim­it­ed.

Re­fus­ing to back down, she took le­gal ac­tion and was lat­er re­in­stat­ed. Amid the glam­our of in­ter­na­tion­al pageantry, she was forced to dig in­to her pock­et to cov­er bills due to a lack of fund­ing. Yet through it all, the ex­pe­ri­ence forged a stronger, wis­er woman, teach­ing her life lessons that con­tin­ue to shape who she is to­day.

Lessons she now shares through the Yes She Can Foun­da­tion (YSC)—the NGO she part­nered with for her Beau­ty with a Pur­pose project. These are prac­tices she con­tin­ues to ap­ply in her dai­ly life and as host of the mag­a­zine-style tele­vi­sion show Con­ver­sa­tions with Ren & Kim.

Beau­ty with a Pur­pose is a char­i­ta­ble ini­tia­tive es­tab­lished in 1972 and fea­tured in the lead-up to the Miss World pageant.

“I be­came in­volved with the or­gan­i­sa­tion dur­ing the lo­cal leg of the Miss World com­pe­ti­tion back in 2015,” she ex­plained.

“I con­tin­ue to be­lieve deeply in the work we do. Over the years, we’ve proud­ly served thou­sands of young men and women, help­ing them feel seen, val­ued, and cel­e­brat­ed.”

YSC, which was in­cor­po­rat­ed in 2015, seeks to em­pow­er women and girls as it re­lates to un­lock­ing their lim­it­less po­ten­tial and abil­i­ty to suc­ceed at any­thing they are pas­sion­ate about.

“Yes, She Can is ded­i­cat­ed to mo­ti­vat­ing and cel­e­brat­ing women,” she added.

“For the past ten years, we have re­mained com­mit­ted to em­pow­er­ing our com­mu­ni­ty and cre­at­ing op­por­tu­ni­ties for the next gen­er­a­tion.” That next gen­er­a­tion in­cludes grad­u­at­ing stu­dents.

In every young per­son’s life, grad­u­a­tion is a defin­ing mo­ment—a mile­stone that rep­re­sents hard work, per­se­ver­ance, and the promise of a bright fu­ture.

How­ev­er, for many sec­ondary school stu­dents across T&T, the joy of this mo­ment is over­shad­owed by fi­nan­cial hard­ship.

In 2017, YSC launched its char­i­ty project Roy­al­ty for a Night with a mis­sion to en­sure that no stu­dent miss­es out on their grad­u­a­tion ball due to fi­nan­cial chal­lenges.

“Yes She Can was found­ed by Rober­ta Rose-Collins, who con­tin­ues to be the heart and soul of the NGO,” Singh said.

“Rober­ta’s tire­less ded­i­ca­tion has helped trans­form lives and in­spire hope across the coun­try. She is tru­ly the chief cook and bot­tle wash­er.”

Roy­al­ty for a Night is an an­nu­al event that out­fits sec­ondary school stu­dents for their grad­u­a­tion night.

“We pro­vide new and gen­tly used gowns and suits, along with ac­ces­sories, to en­sure that every young per­son can cel­e­brate their mile­stone with con­fi­dence and dig­ni­ty,” Singh added.

“We al­so part­ner with lo­cal ser­vice providers for hair, make­up, and nail ser­vices, help­ing to make the ex­pe­ri­ence tru­ly un­for­get­table.”

Through the gen­eros­i­ty of donors, vol­un­teers, and spon­sors, YSC has pro­vid­ed more than 2,500 grad­u­ates with el­e­gant at­tire, pro­fes­sion­al groom­ing, and con­fi­dence-build­ing ex­pe­ri­ences—at no cost to them. Singh ex­tend­ed heart­felt thanks to all those in­volved with the Roy­al­ty for a Night ini­tia­tive.

“Af­ter be­gin­ning with just ten vol­un­teers in 2017, the pool of dream mak­ers now in­cludes more than 100 in­di­vid­u­als of all ages, eth­nic­i­ties and back­grounds,” she said.

“Year af­ter year they show up to pro­vide in­valu­able sup­port to our clients.”

With the col­lec­tion dri­ve com­plet­ed, dis­tri­b­u­tion will take place at Gulf View Com­mu­ni­ty Cen­tre, Gulf View, San Fer­nan­do, this week­end. Dis­tri­b­u­tion will al­so take place at La Joya Sport­ing Com­plex, St Joseph, on June 14 and 15, and at Shaw Park, To­ba­go, on June 21 and 22.

Stu­dents are asked to walk with proof that they wrote the ex­am­i­na­tion this year. Life Skills work­shops al­so form a part of the Roy­al­ty for a Night ini­tia­tive. How­ev­er, due to a lack of fund­ing, that as­pect will not be held this year.

You can get more in­for­ma­tion by fol­low­ing @Roy­al­ty­foraNight on In­sta­gram and Face­book.