Miss World 2013 Megan Young is getting better and better in live interviews and she truly is a great ambassador!
A day after she won the Miss World crown, she appeared in the BBC News program “Impact” where she talked about being an agent of change in her own country and why she joined the beauty pageant in the first place: “The fact that its main focus is charities…it wasn’t about the glitz and the glamor at all but how you are as a person,” she said.
It now appears that the pageant’s theme of “beauty with a purpose” is being put in practice.
Megan has been giving interviews to help raise awareness for super typhoon Yolanda. She revealed to the Associated Press that she is returning to the Philippines on Nov 27 to help in relief efforts.
And a few hours ago, she appeared in the US show “Good Morning America” where she talked about growing up and going to school in Virigina until she was 10 years old, and why no one imagined that Yolanda “would be as terrorizing as this.”
Watch the video here, and read the transcript below.
TRANSCRIPT
When typhoon Haiyan hit the Philippines earlier this month it was, well, you know, one of the largest recorded storms in history, causing a devastating amount of destruction. Thousands of lives lost to a storm, 11 million people now left homeless. They are in great need and thankfully we have a wonderful spokesperson working hard to help her fellow Filipinos.
Megan, first of all, thank you. You were born here in the US but you moved to the Philippines at a young age.
Yes, I moved to the Philippines when I was around 10. I was born in Viriginia and I went there for my elementary days.
And you know I always ask Ginger, in the days leading up to this weather event, whereas metereologists, they see these things forming. And you see what may be headed that way. In the last days, and hours for you…what was it like to watch?
Well, you don’t really know till it’s there. A lot of people don’t really know what a storm surge is, that the water will just come in and could wipe out the area. With the houses that they have, like nipa huts, they’re made of materials that aren’t as sturdy as you would think, and aside from the storm surge we also had winds that could be as strong as a tornado. So you have these two elements coming together. And it just wipes out an area, nobody had any idea that bring this much damage to the area.
Three times the force of Hurricane Katrina the winds and it’s something that they – it’s not like this is the first time.
I think some people may have underestimated it. Even some of us were like, oh maybe it’s just, we’ve seen a storm before and it’s passed us, but never did we image that it would be as terrorizing as this.
How do people help? Because when I start reporting on this that’s the first thing people ask.
A lot of students obviously would like to help and you think that maybe a dollar will be too little or five dollars will be too little but actually five dollars can give a whole family water, rice supplies, for a good period of time and that is a lot to them. And they can easily just go to the website of Red Cross Philippines…It’s simple things like that, that actually go a long way.
You obviously had this thrust upon you as a spokesperson. You can use your considerable exposure for the power of good. What is it like you personally to be able to do this and to travel to Haiti where you actually narrowly avoided the building collapse there. What is like for you? How rewarding personally for you?
Well, in regards to Haiti we actually fell through the platform, around ten feet…we were there for the orphanage and it’s not so sturdy…so we actually fell through with 20 kids with the organizers of Miss World and two people had to get surgery because of that. It makes you realize that in a snap anything can happen. Same with the Philippines, in a snap the water was just rising and then people suddenly didn’t know how to get out of their houses. They didn’t know whether to go out or go their rooms or find some other shelter. It makes you realize that things can just happen in a second. But what can we do? I mean, it’s just to help out when things like this happen.
Watch her being interviewed on Associated Press
