Miss Tanzania

Faraja Kotta

Faraja come from one of Tanzania’s most prominent municipal’s in the country, Kinondoni. She was one of the top 5 best students in the National "A" level exam results, and is currently a first year student of the University of Dar Es Salaam in the Faculty of Law. Faraja emerged as the winner of the biggest Essay Competition in Tanzania, giving advise on ‘How to Develop Life of the Children and Youth of her country’. This was organised by the Government and UNICEF. From this she was selected to represent her country and travelled to New York (USA) to the Preparatory Committee of the UN special Session on Children between January and June 2001. Whilst there, Faraka was chosen to represent the First African Child to present the Children resolution on behalf of PREPCOM. Her hobbies are: Music, Politics, Reading, Swimming and Serving the society by fighting for youth’s rights.


Where did you grow up? Tell us a little about your home town/city, and family.
I grew up in Dar es Salaam, the administrative and economic centre of Tanzania. It lies along the coast of the Indian Ocean and it is within the tropics. About 3 million people inhabit it. I am the last born in a family of four, having two brothers and one sister. I live with my parents, my father is a Retired Brigadier General of the Tanzania Armed Forces and my mother is a freelance consultant also serving as a Deputy Mayor in the Kinondoni Municipal and Dar es Salaam City Councils.

What Jobs have you done? What was the most interesting/bizarre?
Consultant - UNICEF Information Resource CentreResearcher - Street ChildrenProgramme Officer- Cross Roads Trust on Adolescents Sexual Reproductive Health.Producer and Presenter ‘Vipengele 12’ a child and youth rights radio programme.

What are your career ambitions, how do you plan to realise them?
To become a Diplomat, a career, which I have already set my feet in as I have represented my country in several United Nations conferences around the world. I shall take relevant courses at the university specifically with International Relations. I also keep myself updated on the current world affairs.

What is the proudest moment of your life? (Not including winning your National Title)
When I was among the top five best students of my country in my Advanced Level National Examinations.

What was the funniest/most embarrassing moment of your life?
My most embarrassing moment was when I was told to give a talk to my fellow students for the first time as the treasurer of the students Christian Fellowship. For no apparent reason I began to stammer and I could not get a single word out. I ended up crying in public.

What was the funniest/most embarrassing moment of your life?
I feel my life has changed in several ways since winning the national title. I have to be very attentive to everything that goes on around me and time management has become very important now. I am much more concerned with the environment the people I have to deal with. Therefore I have to take extra effort to improve my public relations and communications skills, as a matter of course; I have to be very careful with the way I appear in public.

Tell us about an interesting event you have attended, or a person that you have met.
The most interesting event I have attended is the United Nations Special Session on Children in New York USA where I was my country’s children and youth representative, therefore I was part of my President’s delegation. I met several heads of states and I was especially proud to meet Nelson Mandela and his wife. I also presented a paper on children’s participation.

What would you like to do, if you became Miss World 2004?
I would like to promote humanity, dignity, peace and love among nations and within nations. I will continue to be an advocate for human rights as the key to conflict resolutions, promotion of world peace and development sustainability especially that of the third world countries.

If you had a personal motto what would it be?
"Patience and Tolerance"

Give details of any charitable work undertaken?
I volunteered to work closely with street children in Dar es Salaam city slums to get an insight of their daily lives and problems.
I also volunteered to advocate on child rights in workshops, trainings and to young people outside schools.
Currently I work with stigmatised HIV infected people in fighting stigma, on sexually abused children and on female genital mutilation.

Miss Tanzania's Gallery