I want to promote tourism in Sri Lanka – Miss Earth Australia

Miss Teen Himaya Wijayaweera, a full-time student at Monash University completing her Bachelor of Nursing was born in Sri Lanka but has lived in Australia; Melbourne for 14 years. She very passionate about the modelling and pageant industry and has been a part of the industry since 2018 whenshe won her first pageant as Miss Teen Sri Lanka Australia.

This year,she returned to the pageant stage to represent the Victorian state in the Miss Earth Australia National competition.She won one of the five national titles and became Miss Earth Australia – Charity.

Talking about her career she said “My journey started when I became exposed to the large amounts of paper waste that was occurring in the healthcare environment. As a student nurse, I believe it is a great responsibility to advocate for this issue and find alternative solutions such as transferring online She said

Talking about her career she stated “After winning the state title, Miss Earth Victoria, I developed my initiative, ‘strive for sustainability,’ to make our environmental issues targeted to everyone and share the responsibility of making a difference.”

She pointed out “I used my platform to illustrate how I make a difference and encourage similar behaviours from my viewers”. She said she was thankful for Miss Earth Australia journey, as it allows her to continue educating others whilst learning new ways, to utilise the resources to make a positive change ” She said For her the word ‘Charity’ in my title resonates and aligns well with my values and views. Being a disability support worker and a student nurse, I find my career choices fulfilling towards assisting and educating others. As my journey continues, I want everyone to join me by taking the initiative to change wasteful or unethical methods to strive for sustainability, allowing our beautiful environments to keep flourishing. As some Australian hospitals slowly progress to online documentation in healthcare facilities, I continue to urge the facilities that neglect this critical issue to find alternatives to better the catastrophic future of our environment.

She said she owns a charity event; a high tea called ‘Shades of Green,’ to raise funds for charities under the umbrella of Miss Earth. Furthermore, she did eco- friendly activities such as upcycling clothing, teaching children in schools about our environmental issues and partnering with eco-friendly brands. This led to the outcome of me winning the ‘green achievers award.’ She further continued “Through public voting I became, the ‘People’s Choice Award’ winner with a percentage of 40.6% of votes for myself and runners up having 19%. I could not have participated in this pageant and got far without the courage built through the assistance of my friends and family. The reward of competing in Miss Earth was sharing my journey and winning with everyone who supported me.

She concluded “I would like the opportunity to expose myself to many opportunities to build various connections to promote Sri Lanka with my platform. Coming from Australia, I believe I could illustrate the natural beauty of our country to increase tourism even if it is by convincing one person at a time to visit Sri Lanka.”