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It is the norm of most beauty pageants across the world for the winners to take on a charity project during their reign as beauty queens. However, what is rare is to find these queens continue in such projects after they pass on their titles. Menaye Donkor won the Miss Universe Ghana pageant in 2004 and hasn�t turned her back on the charity projects she began since then. Soon after the pageant, she established the Menaye Charity Foundation and took over the running of Menaye International School which her parents set up in 2001. So far, over 500 children have been through the school and the facilities are continually expanding. She is solely responsible for raising funds to support the school which provides free, quality education to under privileged children in the rural areas. Her foundation provides everything for the school from the buildings and equipment, to the teachers� salaries, uniforms for the pupils, books and stationery. Through her charity foundation, she has also helped provide medical care for over 600 orphans infected with HIV or AIDS. Menaye is married to Inter Milan footballer, Sulley Muntari. She is a model, actress, and entrepreneur, running her own property development company in Ghana. She has graced the pages of international magazines such as Maxim with her striking looks. Born in 1981, Menaye has a strong passion for children and is not resting on her oars as she is set to touch more lives and put smiles on the faces of even more children. She speaks about her inspiring work with her charity and many more in this interview exclusive to BN readers. Most beauty queens who run charity organizations during their reign drop it off after they pass on the title. How have you kept on for so long despite the fact that your reign as queen ended since 2005? Setting up the charity and taking over the school was something I have always wanted to do as I grew up in a family where giving back to the community was very important. It is a part of my life and always has been so crown or no crown, I�m dedicated for the long haul. I have put a lot of hard work into my other businesses to help sustain the charity and school. Where did you get the inspiration to start the Charity? My family is my inspiration for everything. Charity has always been important to me because my family, my father in particular, showed me the importance of giving back to the community, so I wanted to do this in my home country of Ghana. I particularly wanted to support children in the deprived central region infected with HIV and AIDS, and make a difference to children�s education in my home area. Why the special focus on children? I am drawn to the innocence in children. They are put in situations that are no choice of theirs so they deserve the chance in life to create a better and brighter future. What is the prevalence rate of HIV/AIDS in Ghana especially among children? There are about 250,000 people living with HIV in Ghana and 27,000 of them are children and the biggest problem is education about the disease. What are the key focus areas of the Charity? The Menaye Charity Organisation raises funds for deprived children in Ghana, particularly children infected with and affected by HIV or AIDS. I have always tried to raise awareness and funds to help support these children, especially those at orphanages across Ghana. I have previously worked with an orphanage in Odumasi in the Eastern region of Ghana, which has around 600 children affected by AIDS. Through the charity, I am also solely responsible for providing the funds and management of the Menaye International School, which has to date, provided an education to over 500 Ghanaian children who would otherwise not have had access to an education. What specific projects has your charity organization been involved in recently? The Menaye Charity Organization has contributed to the Korle Bu Fever Unit in Accra in the Central region of Ghana, as well as the Somanya Orphanage in the Krobo region. We have also just funded a new ICT suite and library at the Menaye International School which we officially opened over Christmas. It was a great event and hundreds of people turned up for the celebration to marvel at the new facilities. The kids were really delighted and it was so nice to see all their little smiling faces again. Why did you decide to take over the running of Menaye International School? Where do you get funding from? My family is from Agona Asafo, so when I compared the educational facilities in the village with those in Accra where I studied and lived, I was deeply concerned about the future of the children who resided in the village and in the surrounding areas. My father founded the Menaye International School in year 2000 to give back to our community in the central region of Ghana. I later on adopted the school in 2004 after winning the Miss Ghana Universe pageant. Winning the pageant gave me the opportunity to use my title as a platform to raise money to support the school. In the past I have raised money through fundraisers in New York, where I used to work, and in my home country of Ghana. Currently I support my charity through my own personal funding but am looking to hold some more fundraising events in the near future. How far do you intend to take your charity? What future plans do you have? My plans for the Menaye Charity Organisation are to provide not only medical assistance to the orphanages in Ghana but also education at the orphanages. I will also continue to support the education of society about prevention and treatment of HIV and AIDS. I want to continue to grow and develop the Menaye International School in Agona Asafo to meet the needs of more children and I am also hoping to raise enough funds to buy a school bus for the school so that the pupils don�t have to walk the several miles between home and school each day. What was your reign like as Miss Universe Ghana? Winning Miss Universe Ghana meant a lot to me. It completely changed my life as it gave me the opportunity to do everything I do today; from charity work to travelling to forging an acting career. I had just finished my Marketing Degree in Canada and flown back to Ghana to get a job in Marketing when my sister suggested I enter the Miss Ghana Universe Pageant in 2004. I had about two weeks to prepare and believe me, it was the busiest 14 days of my life. Immediately after winning the pageant, I moved to New York and launched my modeling career so it really was a whirlwind life-changing experience. I picked up various modeling jobs, starting off as a model for department store launches, and worked hard enough to appear in Maxim magazine in Italy. More importantly though, winning Miss Ghana Universe gave me the platform to launch my charity, which is an important part of my life, and which has improved many other people�s lives too through providing education and medication to hundreds of children in Ghana. What was it like for you, growing up in Ghana? I was brought up by my parents in Accra, Ghana, as the youngest of seven siblings with four brothers and two sisters. Then at the age of seven I inherited the job title of �Royal Stool Bearer� from my paternal grandmother, who was the Queen mother of Agona Asafo. In Ghana, the positive energy is indescribable. You instantly just fall in love with the place � it�s like love at first sight. And believe me once you�ve had a dose of Ghana, you keep coming back for more. What are your fondest memories of your home country? There are many. Growing up as one of seven children, there was always lots of fun and happiness and almost all of my best memories revolve around spending time with my family. One very special time in our house, as in most houses, was Christmas morning. My Dad would always cook breakfast for all of us, and we�d all be excited about Dad�s cooking. I also have very vivid memories of my Dad taking us back to the village where he grew up. It was very important to my Dad that we all knew where we came from and that message is something that is instilled in me very strongly to this day. What did you study at the University and how has that helped your modeling career? I graduated with Honours in Marketing from York University in Toronto, Canada. When I graduated from University, I was looking for a Marketing job in Ghana or Toronto, so my life could have been completely different. Although I have had a successful modeling career, I am glad I got an education first as it is something no one can ever take away from me. Where are you based now? I now share my time between London for work purposes, my home country of Ghana and then my home with my husband Sulley in Milan.