Although she is always caught up with development work, the British-born Barbadian still makes some time to pursue her entertainment interests."As a young person growing up in England, I always said I wanted to come back home to Africa and work with disadvantageous groups, especially women and children. Once I came to the Upper West Region, the love of the people... how they embraced me and made me feel like a daughter coming home... the whole experience has just become my feel for life", she said excitedly.Sandra launched her career in modeling in the UK with Model Team International. Jet Set. She has also won the Miss Barbados UK and Miss Unique UK pageants at different times and was a finalist for Miss Black Manchester.It may now appear that Sandra has been grounded by her field work in communities in Nadowli and its surrounding villages, but before then, she had clocked five years of traveling the world and working as an air hostess for NOVAIR and Airtours International Airline in the UK.Whenever the first Miss Black Manchester UK is able to steal some time off her busy schedule, she models, organizes fashion shows, or contributes to fashion magazines. What better way to bring her experience as a beauty queen bear to the Upper West Region than by organizing Face of Upper West and Face of Wa Polytechnic in 2009 and the UDS Miss Elequence in 2010?

The region, with its growing population of students from the Wa Polytechnic and the University of Development Studies (UDS), needed this break in entertainment, and Sandra was there to organize these events and train the contestants.Talking to me about how she spent her time away from her work, she disclosed, I tend to read a lot of African history literature and watch DVDs sent to me by friends from the UK about Africa because I live in Africa and want to learn so much more about our  challenges...I do a lot of extracurricular activities.Also, because of my modeling background, I have trained a lot of young girls in catwalking, pageantry, project design, and community-level initiatives that they can use as their projects for the pageant. I've offered training for the Face of Wa Polytechnic, the Face of UDS, and the Face of Tertiary Ghana's Most Beautiful. I trained Gifty Ofori for Miss Universe Ghana, and she actually won the pageant in 2012 and went to Las Vegas.I also recently worked with the National Youth Authority to design a fashion show for dressmakers, tailors, hairdressers, make-up artists, and stage designers to promote vocational education in the Upper West Region.

As one of five VSO volunteers sent to the Nadowli district in the Upper West Region, Sandra had an emotional experience when she first arrived. She was the only dark-skinned volunteer among the group and could easily pass one of her inhabitants, but her accent gave her away. As some curious lads observed the volunteers at a community gathering, an elder pointed to Sandra and said to a child in Dagaare, "Look, she's Nadowli Mma." The child then walked up to her and yelled "Nadowli Mma," and Sandra embraced the boy. Since then, everyone in the community has called her Nadowli Mma', meaning Mother of Nadowli.Both of my parents are from Barbados in the Caribbean, and my father migrated to the UK and brought the family there. Although we grew up in the UK, we always knew there was a place called home, and we have a very strong connection with Africa. My family has been very supportive of me being here because they know that I'm not only fulfilling a personal dream and passion, but it's also a family connection. My sisters are very particular that their children will grow knowing that there is another place called home so they are not brainwashed by the negative images of Africa", she said.

As part of her extracurricular activities, the arts enthusiast has modeled for Da Viva Textiles, which is marketed by Oh Yes Fashion Magazine. Again, she served as a freelance creative director for Agoo Magazine and has been a panel judge for Ghana Fashion Nite Out model casting. From all indications, Sandra Scantlebury has done a lot of work for communities in the Upper West Region. Clearly, her busy schedule hasn't stopped her from venturing into the creative industry of fashion and event management. When asked how she copes, she simply beamed with a smile and uttered, "A lot of my free time is taken up with extracurricular activities because I'm not married and I don't have any children, so my time is very free. My NGO work doesn't feel like work because it's fun and, by God's grace, we achieve very good results.Concluding the interview, Sandra said the one thing she'd love to do that she has not done yet is set up an education fund to support school children in the Upper West Region.-Rudolph H. Asumda, www.graphic.com.gh