By Chinedu Onyejelem

Three people were crowned winners of the inaugural Sunrise pageant held in Dublin recently to create awareness about diabetes in Ireland and Africa. Mario Pompa from Slovakia, Lithuanian born Agnieska Kulesza and Dutch woman Esmeralda Usiahon were crowned Mr, Miss and Mrs Sunrise for 2015 respectively.

Speaking to Metro Éireann following the successful show, Matilda Chongwa, founder of the Sunrise Foundation, said the event aimed to fundraise towards education and support for people with diabetes in Ireland and Africa.

“We are fund raising for the trip through different events and collections,” she said. “We have an awareness event that we are co-ordinating, we are visiting a diabetes centre and we have doctors who will be doing the checkup for free, and we also have a sit-and-chat session just to know what it is and how they feel [to be] living with diabetes.”

Kulesza, Pompa and Usiahon will travel to Cameroon in west Africa to participate in a week-long diabetes initiative later this year, which includes supporting two children from “a very poor diabetic home” with their education, said Chongwa, who added that the pageant also aims to instil in young people the spirit of giving back to the community.