The Buzz is on for the 2007 Miss Nigeria in America

We have launched the new website and the buzz for the 2007 Miss Nigeria in America is ON.. We are very grateful to God for the strength and the wonderful team that we have. The new and improved marketing team - Kenneth Emeson [California], Michelle Ogunbode [Maryland], ChiChi Dike [California], and Onyinye Nwankwo [Houston, Texas] have done a marvellous job and they continue to push this great event. This year is bigger and better..

We have loaded all the pictures of the delegates on facebook and the new website. Please check them out and vote for your favorite delegate. Right now, we are putting finishing touches to the script for the show and we promise to bring you the best Nigerian entertainment show.

Please log on to for more information about the show, tickets and logistics for the main event. Please tell you friends, family and all those whom you know will support this great movement.

Here are some of the promotional materials that we have for the pageant



Keep checking back for more information as we continue to update you on the 2007 Miss Nigeria in America Beauty Pageant.

Official Fashion Designer....

MNIA,Inc. is proud to present to you D'ure Designs -The Official Fashion Designer for the 2007 Miss Nigeria in America Beauty Pageant.

She is our guest blogger today and her designs would debut at the Fall of Signature Essence Fashion Show in Houston, Texas on August 18, 2007.
D'ure Designs will also be featured on October 12, 2007 at the Fashion Show that will be held in honor of the Miss Nigeria in America delegates. She will design the outfits the delegates will model that night at the event.





These are some of her designs. If you want to see more, check her out on August 18, 2007 or October 12, 2007 at the Delegates Gala for the 2007 Miss Nigeria in America Beauty Pageant. For more information, you can email her at chiomanwogu80@yahoo.com
Blog by D'ure Design
"Design with ELEGANCE in Mind; Design with COMFORT in Mind; Design with YOU in Mind

Hello Ladies… My name is Chioma Adure Nwogu, The Creative Director of D’ure Designs. I am extremely excited to be working with the MNIA 2007 Team this year to create wonderful designs for the organization and for the delegates.

D’ure Designs celebrates the true and unique beauty of the woman. The pride that follows us everywhere we go. The beauty of being a woman of virtue no matter the size, shape or height. That is the beauty I love and I’m so proud to reveal through my designs. D’URE was taken out of my middle name "ADA+URE = ADURE", for those that remember how it is thought in Igbo classes. My grand father proudly gave me that name the very first time he saw me. A very close friend and sister helped me derive the name D’URE from ADURE; she knows herself and I say thank you for everything.
Everyone can be an ADURE if you look within yourself and find the Beauty that GOD has placed in you which makes you a D’ure Lady.

Elegance is key to being a D’ure Lady because my designs takes the natural elegance that you exude and brings it to life with the clothing.

Comfort is another key to being a D’ure Lady because it is very important that you are comfortable in the body that GOD gave you. Why not be elegantly comfortable with D’ure Designs

'You' is the last key to being a D’ure Lady because if you don’t see the beauty that GOD has placed in you no one will. Let your Elegance, your Comfort and You (beauty) follow you wherever you go. Proudly be a D’ure Lady!!!

My mission statement is:
-To design elegant outfits for Nigerian young adult female population in United States; Utilizing Nigerian and American Influences in order to bring out the best of both worlds.

Updates......

It’s been a while we posted here. You can tell we have been so busy trying to get everything perfect for October 13, 2007. We had the delegates send their portraits and they are beautiful and very talented. We have collected almost all the talent sheets and it’s amazing what these girls are going to perform at the 2007 Miss Nigeria in America Beauty Pageant.

The delegates will start their volunteer work this week and it’s supposed to last 6 weeks. It is our goal to teach others how to be empathetic, to give back and spare some time in thier busy schedule to help those in need. The volunteer organizations that our delegates have chosen this year include the following:

1. British Heart Foundation – London, England
2. Ithaca Free Clinic – Ithaca, New York
3. Liberty International Ministries (Youth Department) – Ontario, California
4. Chicago Children's Museum – Chicago, Illinois
5. Developmental Learning Center – Nashville, Tennessee
6. Legal Aid of North Carolina - Greensboro, North Carolina
7. The Shepherd's Clinic, Inc., - Baltimore, Maryland
8. Franklin Plaza Nursing Home – Cleveland, Ohio
9. Knight of St. Columbus-Council 2505 – Lakeland, Florida
10. Cayuga Medical Center – Ithaca, New York
11. E&K Therapeutic & Learning Center (E&K TLC) – Silver Spring, Maryland
12. Sunrise Senior Living: Sunrise of Silver Spring – Silver Spring, Maryland
13. Chinese Community Center of Houston – Houston, Texas
14. Child Time Learning Centers – Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
15. Second Mile Mission Center – Houston, Texas
16. Adventist Youth Society (AYS) – Houston, Texas
17. Dallas Weekly – Dallas, Texas
18. Brigid's Hope – Houston, Texas
19. The Restored Christian Ministries – Dallas, Texas
20. Ronald McDonald House of Houston, Inc. – Houston, Texas
21. Houston Food Bank – Houston, Texas
22. Youth Outreach Youth Organization – Houston, Texas
23. Adventist Health International - Umuahia, Abia State- Nigeria

We commend all delegates and wish them God’s blessings as they give of themselves to those in need. Please log on to the Miss Nigeria in America Event Website to follow them weekly as they provide you with a day-to-day synopsis of their activities.

For more information on the 2007 Miss Nigeria in America Beauty Pageant, please continue to check back for more updates as we get closer to the show.

Love,

MNIA 2007 Team

My Goodness...

Wow, trust Nigerians to wait to the last minute to do everything. We set out to do this year's pageant with [15] very qualified candidates. The official deadline for applications was July 1st, making it approximately a 2-month long window for anyone interested in applying. A week before the deadline, we had received 34 applications, however 20 more came in that last week. Exciting, but terribly overwhelming at the same time.

All applications go through a series of screenings. Everything about the application is scrutinized to see how the applicants followed the simple instructions. Normally, we tend to overlook little mishaps here and there, but with the amount of applications we got this year, there was no room for error. It literally came down to the simple minute details.

Of the 54 applications we received, 38 applicants made it to the interview phase, 18 of whom applied in the last week. The 38 applications were sent of to our selection committee [individuals across the US, from different works of lives]. Each member of the committee got an electronic folder of each candidate. In the folder, we included their original applications, the pictures the candidates submitted, and notes from their phone interviews. Each member of the committee had instructions on what the organization is looking for in candidates. They had the difficult job of ranking the candidates based on a number of points. When all committee members had finished their ranking, we now had to compare all the rankings and come up with our final selections. Remember we had intended to have 15 delegates, but the candidates this year are so on point, we ended up with...........24 Delegates!

It wasn't easy...but we have them. They know who they are and you'll find out very soon. We would like to thank everyone that helped us get the word out there and every one that applied. Now that we have our lovely ladies, we're switching our focus to preparing for the show. Houston...y'all need to start preparing for us too...SERIOUSLY!

CONGRATULATONS to the 2007 Miss Nigeria In America Beauty Pageant Delegates, you earned your spot, let the competition begin.

113 Days left..

Well it’s been really busy this whole week and we can’t believe we are at the end of it already. Time goes by so fast. Can you believe the pageant is exactly 113 days away? It seems like there is still a lot to be done to make this production unique and spectacular [like we PROMISED]. This week, we mailed out some packages to potential corporate sponsors. The applications are still pouring in and there are more interviews to be scheduled. Its getting really exciting because the girls are just getting better and better.

We also secured the beautiful Houston Grande Plaza Hotel as the official hotel for the 2007 Miss Nigeria in America Beauty Pageant. We have a discount rate of $85.00 a night and you have to book by October 1, 2007. Please call 713/748-3221 and reference the Miss Nigeria in America Pageant.

This year, we're making a bigger program book and we are accepting requests for ads in the booklet
For those that want to place ads in the program book please email Event Manager-PR Officer - Michelle Ogunbode [michelle@missnigeriainamerica.org]

MNIA, Inc. is dedicating this event to God and we are putting everything in his hands because he is the MAIN DIRECTOR of this program. So put us in your prayers too and come out and support.

Gotta go back to work.. Later

The Introduction

Hey folks, we're new to this blogging thing so bare with us. Yeah "us", this blog is a creation of MNIA, Inc. a non-profit organization who's mission is to empower and educate Nigerian women, with a concentration at those in the United States. There are different people involved with the organization who have access to post here, thus the "US." Ok, so why the blog? Simple, in the course of finding a way to promote our events, especially the upcoming Miss Nigeria In America Beauty Pageant, scheduled for October 13th, 2007 in Houston, we came across a lot of blogs, and it was a no brainer that perhaps this will give us yet another platform to spread the word about our organization, programs and events.

Not only that, we figured it would be fun to share some of the "insider" information, of course nothing that will influence the outcome of the pageant. Right now, things are really heating up as the application deadline is fast approaching and the applications are pouring in...trust naijas to wait to the last minute. Well, they still have about two weeks though. July 1st is the absolute deadline. With the amount of applicantions that came in already , we wish we can just close it now because we have so many well qualified candidates but very limited number of space for delegates.

Anyway, we'll try our best to keep this updated as much as we can. At this time, 17 out of 50 candidates have made it through to the interview stage with just a few more scheduled. After the interviews, the board of directors will review the applications and carefully deliberate before eventually making the final selections. Right now, provisions have been made for 15 delegates but with the quality of young ladies still applying we might be forced to increase that number. If you're interested in learning more about the organization, please log on to MNIA, Inc. Online and if you want to apply, check out MNIA 2007 Beauty Pageant. The final candidates will be announced the first week of July at which time, the [later] website will be updated to reflect more about this year's show.

The theme for this year's pageant is "Celebrating the Beauty and Excellence of the Nigerian woman." The candidates this year, like in previous years, will embody all that and some.

Ok, time to get back to work...but check back for updates. We'll share the production process as best we can and we hope to see you there.

To get in touch with the organization, please write to:
MNIA, Inc. or Cladiya Entertainment LLC @ 9107 Wilshire Boulevard, Suite 450, Beverly Hills, CA 90210 or email info@missnigeriainamerica.org. You can also call 310.926.2316 or 213.593.9704.