Miss World 2019 Toni-Ann Singh says the pageant has given her a greater platform to advocate for change while participating in projects that will assist the less fortunate in the society.

“We care about what it is that you have to say, and someone that knows the truth that Toni-Ann can say, ‘We need help in Bath,’ and a couple people will listen but this platform allows me to say we need help in Bath and now there are cameras going to see what I was saying regardless. This is so much more than that, this is so much more powerful than that, it is very relevant and it is so far past being about the standards of beauty and so much more about women being granted the opportunity to be heard,” Singh said.

She was speaking during a press conference at the Jamaica Pegasus Hotel in New Kingston on Saturday (Dec 21).

Singh was crowned on December 14 in London, England, becoming the fourth Jamaican to win the 69-year-old competition.

She continued: “One hundred and thirty countries get to allow their women to say something and be heard…that is so much more and it’s so much more important, yes there is a crown, yes you get to fight the battle sometimes in a pageant gown but most of the time you’ll find us with the hair pulled back, with no makeup and we are on the ground working because that is the importance of the Miss World platform.”

Ms Singh said she was inspired to work with teenage mothers and is hopeful that she will be able to make a positive difference in their lives.

“I am the descendant of two women that had

children during their teenage years and I have seen them stress the importance

of education to their children who then have instilled in me the importance of

creating opportunities and grasping them and taking them for what they are

worth when it comes to education, when it comes to music.

“I am grateful for that but I realise that there are so many awesome women in Bath, and all over Jamaica and the world that have the same capabilities that I have and they don’t have the opportunities and they might not have the parents that I have that are so willing or so able to make those capabilities into opportunities so here I am now trying to make sure that I become, if I can, the difference for these women,” she added.