Miss Jamaica Universe 2007 Zahra Redwood with a young fan. - Contributed

Using her appointment as Miss Jamaica Universe 2007 to give back to her country, Zahra Redwood is demonstrating that she has the heart to match her confident stride. The beauty queen has embarked on a campaign to bring more visibility and awareness to the issues of mental health in Jamaica.

During this past festive season, Zahra championed a collection drive of cash, clothes and toiletries, as well as harnessed volunteer energies, to assist the mentally ill community. "Too often we neglect this group within our society and this is one of the main reasons that I decided to pursue this cause," she said.

With the success of the collection drive behind her, the bio-chemist/beauty queen is ready to move to phase two of her cause. Redwood is fine-tuning plans for a series of media advertisements and outreach seminars to help disseminate her message and raise awareness about mental health. "We will co-ordinate the efforts of two previous mental health campaigns launched and completed in 2006/2007 to enhance the message for 2008," explained Zahra.

The balancing game

As she enters the final phase of her reign, she is balancing work as a medical representative and her charity outreach with the hectic schedule of Miss Jamaica Universe activities. She does volunteer work with the Open Arms Drop-in Centre in Kingston as she continues the drive to solicit cash and kind for this facility and others across the island.

Numerous requests continue to pour in for Redwood to attend various events across the region and North America. Her current schedule includes appearances on the runway as well as for charity, in the Turks and Caicos, Atlanta and Ontario.

At home, Zahra will be meeting, greeting and signing autographs for the public at the Air Jamaica Jazz and Blues Festival this week. She will be making appearances at a number of Miss Jamaica Universe road-show activities across the island.

Zahra will hand over the crown at the grand coronation show on April 12 .

Interested applicants to the Miss Jamaica Universe pageant 2008 should contact Pulse by visiting its New Kingston office at 38a Trafalgar Road; calling 968-1089-90 or email: info@pulsecaribbean.com.