Alumna’s beauty pageant title helps her build homes in Haiti


For years Natacha Sarthou Kalicharan ’94 supported Food for the Poor, but just feeding the children was not enough. She had to do more.

The 1990 Orange Bowl Princess was no stranger to pageantry, but she never saw it as a way to promote her cause. Now, after unexpectedly winning the title of Mrs. West Indies International earlier this year, she feels she can finally accomplish her goal of giving homes to the poorest people in the world.

Natacha Kalicharan with her son, from left, Zachary, Sebastian and Chase

Natacha Kalicharan with her sons, from left, Zachary, Sebastian and Chase

Born in Haiti and today a permanent resident of South Florida, the 44-year-old former banker and mother of three boys—now aged 6, 8 and 10—several years ago wanted to teach her sons about helping others. She decided they would save to build a house for a needy family in her homeland.

“It doesn’t take much to feed the poor, $15 a month for a family, $44 for a child per year,” she said. “But to build a house costs a lot more – $3,200 – in the Caribbean and Latin America.

“When you build a house you are breaking the cycle of sickness and poverty,” she said. “We are bringing them to a sanitary living environment.”

Her dream of building homes for the poor might not have come true if not for a fateful encounter with a pageant director in 2013, who told her she should participate in the Mrs. Haiti International Pageant in Miami.

With only a few days to prepare, Kalicharan was elated when she was awarded second runner-up in the pageant. She figured that was the end of her run, but her sons persuaded her to participate in one more pageant. Maybe she could win this time.

So a year later, Kalicharan again competed for the very same title that had eluded her, Mrs. Haiti International.

“I was the first one they called,” she remembered. She was second runner-up–again. Kalicharan figured her dream was over.

“Just when I thought that God had another plan since I didn’t win the crown, he surprised me,” she said of the call she received the next morning. “The pageant officials proposed to make me Mrs. West Indies International 2014.”

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The fruit of Natacha Kalicharan’s fundraising: The Metellus family in front of their new home in Haiti

Her new title meant that she would be taking her platform to the national stage when she competed in the Mrs. International 2014 pageant held in Jacksonville, Fla.

Although Kalicharan did not win, she continues to hold the Mrs. West Indies International title until next year’s pageant and plans to use her position to encourage business owners in South Florida to donate to her cause.

“I want to be able to approach bigger places to get bigger checks,” she said.

She hopes to build at least two more houses before the end of the year and added, “I want Mrs. West Indies International to be known for standing up for the poor.”