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One of their biggest fundraisers for the year is their annual "Miss African Queen" Pageant- which will be taking place this weekend. It's the fifth year for the pageant and 7 young women will be vying for the title. 7news got a glimpse of the girls at this morning's rehearsal.

Karen Vernon
"Miss African Queen 2013. This is 5th Annual Miss African Queen. This idea came about because of women came together, we call ourselves "concern Belizean women" and we do fundraiser to assist women and children in need. We have two major fundraising effort for the year; Miss African Queen being one and then Little Miss Independence in September."

Reporter
"Of course there are several segments to the pageant and one of the main things that we heard from the contestants is the fact that it's an educational pageant. Tell us about that."

Karen Vernon
"It certainly is an educational pageant. Each contestant needs to do research because they each represent an African country and they have to say a bit about that in their first segment. The second segment is a talent section and they need to represent a woman of African descent. They portray this to the audience, so the audience also gets an opportunity to learn about that person. The third segment is the visual house competition where they come out in the African regala; the head ties and the crowns and the very nice royal African outfit and they do a platform statement and they have to talk about why they are proud to be a Belizean woman of an African descent. As you can see a lot of research and work goes into the pageant. The girls have been working out since early January and getting their act together to be ready for tomorrow night."

Reporter
"How African Queen. Why a pageant of that sort?"

Karen Vernon
"Africa is our heritage. Miss African Queen I think fits."

The pageant will be held tomorrow night at 8 at the Bliss Center.