BRIEF BIOGRAPHY OF BOIKANYO TRUST PHENYO

Born in a remote village in Botswana 11 miles from the nearest school, Boikanyo showed her determination to succeed from an early age by running the full distance every school-day and arriving on time without fail. The fitness she achieved enabled her to win races and study hard so nobody was surprised when she got a place at university in the capital, graduated with honours and went on to gain her masters in the teaching of Mathematics & Physics.

After working as a teacher in the capital for four years and getting involved in the  modelling & beauty pageant business she decided it was time to expand her horizons and moved to the UK and over the following ten years became a successful modelling & beauty queen consultant. Every year she helped organise the celebration of Botswana Independence day and returned to her home village to provide support in the form of clothes & Christmas party for the kids who no longer have to walk to school because her 5 year project to raise funds for a school bus came to fruition in December 2014.

Gaining the title Mrs Commonwealth International 2012, Boikanyo became deeply involved in the activities of a beauty pageant which uniquely empowers its title holders to run charitable projects for the benefit of their home country. She attended charitable events as one of the triple queens (Miss Teen, Miss & Mrs), provided catwalk training for the finalists, ran workshops for the title holders to ensure that they understood their roles & objectives, acted as their personal consultant and was appointed Director of Events & Projects in 2014. She organized support for the website and Facebook page which was essential to attract contestants, promote activities and report on the successful achievements of the title holders.

Boikanyo was proud to be the recipient of various awards including: Empowering African Women in Europe Award 2013, African Achievers Award 2013, Panache Global Recognition & Award for Excellence 2014, International Achievers Award 2014, Top 100 Outstanding Africans Making a Difference 2015, Best Motivational Role Model 2015 and Outstanding Supporting Judge 2015. She has become a well known personality who met the royal family at the Commonwealth of Nations Reception at Buckingham Palace in 2013, was interviewed on various TV shows including Princess Halliday, Chrissy B, Pauline Long and Sporah, has appeared in various publications including a interview with Touch Base Africa and was excited to meet & become ongoing friends with the Botswana athletes at the London Olympic Village in 2012.

She has been a catwalk choreographer and guest judge at numerous beauty pageants including Miss Commonwealth, Miss England Rugby, Miss Portugal UK, Miss London Borough, Miss Black Africa and many more. This lady has inspired everybody she met including an author who wrote a book called Eleven Miles about an amazing lady who had to run 11 miles to school every day and overcame all the odds to graduate from university and become a successful Olympic athlete!

Boikanyo was very proud to be appointed by Justina Mutale in 2014 as the Botswana representative for Positive Runway Red Ribbon Models and continues to empower African women everywhere to achieve their rightful place in the world. She is now proud to be part of the Justina Mutale Foundation for Leadership and International Representative in Europe for Destiny Organisation, she looks forward to the exciting challenges that these two will bring.