After a year of flaunting the Miss Global International Guyana crown and doing Guyana proud at the international leg by becoming the first runner and copping six awards, Poonam Singh handed over her crown to 23-year-old old stunner, Cynthia Dookie, the new queen, two Fridays ago at a simple coronation held at the Pegasus Hotel.
The Aries-born Cynthia recently completed the Miss India Guyana pageant where she finished as the second princess.
During an interview with The Scene one of the franchise holders of the pageant, Hashim Alli, explained that after ten ladies were shortlisted and screened, Cynthia was considered the most suitable candidate for queen being a model, more pageant-oriented and still being in “pageant mode” having just competed at the Miss India Guyana pageant.
“It’s truly an honour and I’m very excited to take on the international leg of this pageant,” Cynthia gushed when The Scene caught up with her.
While she would have received training from the Miss India Organisation, Cynthia will be coached as she prepares for the international leg of the pageant. All the training she has received, she said, has fashioned her into the poised and graceful young woman she has become.
“I’m very tomboyish so to speak. Although, I’ve done modelling, I’m not the kind of person who was well kept all the time; pageantry has helped with that. It has also helped to promote my ‘Fit-U’ Project through slogan ‘Transforming Lives One Pound At A Time’…. Through Fit-U I’ve been able to help persons lead a healthier life,” the fitness trainer said. This will stay as her platform for the Miss Global International pageant.
Her drive for fitness started two years ago and according to Cynthia it was after her mother fell ill. Her mother’s doctor, she said, warned her mother that if she wanted to live she needed to change her lifestyle; this motivated Cynthia to start working out and eating healthier and pushing her mother to do the same. Since then her mother’s health has improved. But it didn’t end there as the gym owner saw her passion for fitness and encouraged her to train to become one of their fitness trainers which she did. Though her mother isn’t in Guyana with her, she monitors her workout routine and diet via the internet.
Currently she keeps a strict diet. For breakfast she chooses a very high protein based diet which includes egg whites, oats and fruits while for lunch she makes certain she has lots of steamed vegetables with steamed meat on the side; dinner is mostly salads. In between meals she likes to snack on fruits and yogurt; she does admit to having cheat days when she enjoys fast food but tries as much to stick to her routine.
She uses pageants as a platform to motivate young ladies and to being a role model. She hopes that she can be a strong motivator in the lives of young people encouraging them to be healthy. Cynthia stressed that young people are dying from diseases and she believes that being fit could be a preventative. Her plan is to meet with the local clinics and deal with health issues such as high cholesterol and diabetes.
Wearing the crown among other achievements she said would have been some of the important things in her life that she wishes she would have been able to share with her father, David Dookie. “I lost my dad when I was nine and if I could bring him back I would. I need some closure and I would have wanted to say some final words. Everything I do I say I’m doing this for him and I know he’s looking down and is proud of the woman I’ve become. The last memory I had of him will always be the most memorable day. It was my birthday party and he had gone above and beyond in making it a wonderful one. He passed shortly after. My birthday will always remain my favourite memory,” Cynthia sadly reminisced.
She’s inspired by phenomenal women such as Oprah Winfrey and Mother Teresa.
Pageantry she said has made her more confident in herself and she encourages young women to be confident, a force to reckon with and to work on becoming better versions of themselves. She went on to admonish them in furthering their studies and, be more outgoing and outspoken.
She hopes by the time she finishes her reign she would have left a legacy that is: she was a woman who followed her dreams, the most confident queen anyone has seen and a woman who proved that with hard work, dreams do come through.
Cynthia hails from Mahaicony and is the eldest of six. She loves to cook and according to Melicia, her best friend who was seated nearby during the interview, can cook a mean curry. She also likes the colour purple and enjoys travelling, reading, working out and eating fettuccine alfredo, a pasta dish made from fettuccine tossed with Parmesan cheese and butter.
She is currently pursuing a degree in Human Resource Management through the Associate of Business Education and is employed at the Auditor General’s Office. Cynthia also volunteers at Help and Shelter.
Cynthia is the face for Jordana’s Cosmetics, a brand attached to Amanda’s Bridal.
Hashim believes that the bar has been raised higher for Cynthia since Poonam last year copped the first runner-up position. The Miss Global Inter-national Guyana under Hashim has over the past three years been represented by Onesha Hudson (2014 – top ten finalist, top five in the talent round and Best Smile Award), Alicia Bess (2015 – second runner-up), Poonam Singh M (2016 – first runner-up, Best Personality Award, Best Evening Gown Award, Best Maja Outfit, Best National Costume and in the top three for the talent round).
Cynthia said, “I’m going to bring home the crown.” She will represent Guyana at the Miss Global International 2017 in Montego Bay, Jamaica from September 6 to 10.
