Meet Miss International South Africa

GERRY CUPIDO

MANY young girls grow up dreaming about one day wearing a crown.

Ferini Dayal, one of those girls, now holds the Miss International South Africa title.

“I’ve dreamt about being a beauty queen my entire life, growing up with my dad who is a broadcasting engineer, who filmed many of the pageants in South Africa and my mom who was dressing me up with my crown on so many birthdays. It’s truly a dream that became a reality,” says the 27-year-old

Joburg-based doctor/ surgeon. Miss International is the third largest beauty pageant in the world, after Miss Universe and Miss World. It’s held yearly in Tokyo, Japan. This year the final will take place on December 13.

“No African country has yet won the crown, I will be the first sent from any African country and I’m hoping I will bring home the crown,” she said.

While she always dreamt of wearing a crown, becoming a doctor was her other ambition.

She completed a biomedical sciences degree in physiology and graduated at 20. In 2015, she began her medical degree and completed it in 2018.

“As I grew older and understood how the women involved in the pageants create change and globally are able to run campaigns and advocate for people throughout the world, I realised how my passion for medicine tied into a childhood dream.

“I’ve been practising as a doctor for four years and recently started practising as a surgeon, but throughout my career, I’ve focused on giving back and supporting causes close to my heart which is exactly what Miss International stands for.”

She’s also the founder of Dayal Foundation, a charitable institute which aims to create a difference in many South Africans’ lives through fund-raising and medical advocacy.

“Over the past year and a half, my foundation has raised over a million rand in various projects which aim to educate the public on health topics, eradicate poverty and hunger, improve access to health and basic health needs, and these coincide with the goals of the United Nations.”

During the peak of Covid-19, she implemented an initiative to donate gifts to children in paediatric wards – known as the ‘Dayal Christmas Drive’. More than R250 000 worth of toys were donated to spoil each child.

We asked Dayal a few questions about the pageant and what the title means to her as well as her views on what is beauty.

Why did you enter Miss International?

The organisation’s intention aligned with my values, and I knew that it would be a platform where I’d be able to live out my purpose and affect change on an international scale. I believe that there are no coincidences in life, and my path in medicine, surgery, philanthropy and pageantry brought me to this exact moment for a bigger purpose and I intend to put in my best to represent our country and living out my intentions to make a change in this world.

What would winning the title mean to you and SA?

To win would be my childhood dream becoming a reality. I have many ideas and so much I know that I can accomplish.

To have the support of an organisation headed by a powerful woman by my side would be remarkable and I know South Africa would be proud of me too.

To be the first African candidate to bring home a crown and, the first South African, would put us as a country on the map for a prestigious competition which will highlight South African women as winners in the top three pageants and we would be a bigger force to be reckoned with than we already are. It would be an honour.

What is beauty to you?

Beauty is the outward reflection of your inner expression, it’s about being confident in your pyjamas or your bikini, about being beautiful with and without make-up, and being truly happy with who you are, because that’s when we take pride in our appearance. It’s about loving ourselves, showcasing our personality, and being unafraid of being true to who we are.

With social media and filters, people now have an even more warped idea of what beauty is. How do we change the perception of beauty?

We need to instil values that remind our younger generations of what authenticity is, that confidence in who you are, how you treat others, your knowledge and the ability to create a positive impact on another person’s life is what truly constituents life. Because beauty will fade, money will come and go, filters will change, and the truth of who you are and what you are will always be visible. .

What are your thoughts on aesthetic beauty treatments?

I have trained for the past three years in aesthetics and have my own aesthetic practice in Fourways at Cure Day Clinic.

I fell in love with aesthetics because of the confidence I was able to restore in a woman who no longer felt happy with themselves. Aesthetics is about enhancing natural beauty, not about changing and distorting what exists.