Mpule Kwelagobe

Mpule Keneilwe Kwelagobe of Gaborone, Botswana was crowned Miss Universe in May 1999 in Trinidad and Tobago. Since being crowned Miss Universe 1999, Mpule has been recognized and honored as a human health rights activist, especially for her fight against HIV/AIDS and advocacy for youth and women to have greater access to sexual reproductive education and services.

Miss Universe

Like Angela Visser, the 5 10' Kwelagobe participated in the Miss World pageant (in 1997) but did not place. She was the first Miss Universe Botswana and the first Miss Botswana to participate in the Miss Universe pageant.

Following her reign as Miss Universe, Mpule became a spokesmodel for Clairol. The two page ads first appeared in magazines in the US while Mpule was still Miss Universe.

[edit]Goodwill ambassador

In 2000, she was appointed as a Goodwill Ambassador by the United Nations, focusing on youth and HIV/AIDS. Among others, she has addressed the United States Congress (the United States House of Representatives Committee on Banking and Financial Services. Mpule testified on the socioeconomic impact of AIDS in Africa and proposed a bill to set up a World Bank AIDS prevention trust fund). She has also addressed:

• The 4th United Nations World Youth Summit (Dakar, Senegal),
• The United Nations General Assembly (New York, USA),
• The World Summit on Sustainable Development (Johannesburg, South Africa),
• The 3rd United Nations Least Developed Countries Conference (Brussels, Belgium)
• Moderated an AIDS panel during the Congressional Black Caucus at the invitation of Congresswoman Barbara Lee.

[edit]Other awards

Mpule Kwelagobe was honored with the Jonathan Mann Health Human Rights Award by the International Association of Physicians in AIDS Care (IAPAC). She was honored alongside the principal administrator of the European Commission HIV programme, Lieve Fransen, and former American president William Clinton. In 2003, she was selected as a Global Leader for Tomorrow (GLT) by the World Economic Forum, joining nearly 500 individuals from business, politics, public interest groups, the media, and the arts and the sciences, including Bill Gates, British Prime Minister Tony Blair, Michael Dell and Bono, who have been selected since the programme’s inception in 1993.
In 2006, she was again selected by the World Economic Forum as a Young Global Leader (YGL). The Forum of Young Global Leaders is a newly formed, unique, multi-stakeholder community of the world’s most extraordinary leaders who are 40 years old or younger and who are ready to dedicate their time and energy to jointly work towards a better future.
Mpule now holds a degree in political science (international political economy) from an Ivy League university, Columbia University in the City of New York.

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