Three weeks to go before the crown is placed on the head of a lucky girl who gets the honors of the title of Miss Rwanda 2012. Preparations are underway for the top three ladies who went through at the different provincial levels since mid July.

Three finalists per province were chosen and this week-end, the final top three to join the other twelve will be chosen from Kigali City on Saturday at Kigali Serena Hotel.

Looking back, we could remind the list of the winner per province.

They are, for the Northern Province, Francine Uwase emerging winner followed by Francine Ingabire and Angel Uwamahoro respectively first and second runner up.

In the Western Province, the winner was Esther Uwingabire while Natasha Uwamahoro came in as the first runner up and the second runner up went to Anik Umwamikazi.

The Southern Province had Aurore Mutesi as the winner, while Doreen Isimbi Abeila was the first runner up and Ariane Murerwa came in to take the position of second runner up.

All signs are almost clear that this is going to be a hard competition. All qualifiers seemed confident and had quite a bit of knowledge as regards answering questions.

For instance, the winners from each province were asked what they would do if they got the crown and a number of them had some impressive answers.

Esther Uwingabire, the winner from the south said, "I will collaborate with the Government in coming up with effective programs to fight against drug abuse among the youth".

Lilian Mubera in Eastern Province said, "I will fight unemployment ".

The organisers of Miss Rwanda 2012 have awarded each of the contestants 100 USD -- that's approximately 60,000 francs, plus goodies from Simba Supermarket.

And come August 29 they will be unveiling the crown and various prizes to be won in different categories at Serena Hotel.

The boot camp will have the 15 finalists who will be housed in a specific location where they will undergo extensive training in etiquette, good grooming, physical exercise.

They will also be educated in history, social, economic matters of Rwanda so that they represent the country -- and any forum they would require to -- in an enlightened manner. The boot camp commences on August 19.

Miss Rwanda 2012 is going to be the first of its kind in the country because they started selections at the provincial level unlike in the past where it mainly attracted Kigalians.

They also hope that in the future the winner of these beauty pageants will also at some point represent the country in Miss World, a step to advertise the country globally.

This year Miss Rwanda 2012 has been dubbed "Beauty with a Purpose". The date for this big even has been set to September 1, 2012.