( CNN ) -- The glamour shots capture them in fashion-model poses -- sprawled on a couch or lounging by the pool , smiling and sensuous . Filomena Domingos da Costa , from left , Anita Pedro and Maria Restino Manuel are competing for the unusual title . But these women are n't typical pageant contestants : Each lost a limb after stepping on a landmine in their native Angola . On Wednesday , they compete for the unusual title of Miss Landmine Angola 2008 . Organizers say they want the pageant to restore the women 's pride and raise awareness about the prevalence of landmines left over from Angola 's three decade-long civil war . Undetonated mines still maim 300 to 400 people a year in the county , according to the United Nations . `` I 'm completely enthusiastic about participating , '' said one of the contestants , 25-year-old Paulina Vadi . `` I think that it will give society a wake-up call to be more attentive to disabled people in general . '' Vadi was a fourth-grader when she went to a field to gather fruit . A sudden military attack sent her running for cover . She stepped on a Russian-made mine and lost her right leg . That was 11 years ago . Now Vadi lives with her mother and three school-aged children . She works as a street vendor , selling beer and soda . She said she entered the pageant because she wants to be able to return to school . The contestants represent Angola 's various provinces and range in age from 19 to 33 . Their profiles list not only their ages and favorite colors but also when they were injured and what kind of mine claimed their limbs . Most were maimed while tending fields , and they are now unemployed . Vadi 's photograph has her reclined atop a safe , a tiara on her head and a stack of cash in her left hand . Her sash reads , `` Huila , '' the province she is representing . All the contestants will receive governmental help to go back to school or to start a small business . The winner gets a new prosthetic limb . Angolan organizers expect to crown two winners Wednesday : one picked by a panel of a dozen officials from the Angolan government and foreign embassies , the other through an online poll . So far , organizers said , close to 9,000 viewers from about 30 countries have voted for their favorite participant on the Web site , www.miss-landmine.org . Pageants for contestants who face physical challenges are nothing new . The United States has Ms . Wheelchair America . And contestants from around the globe compete each year in Miss Deaf World . The Angolan pageant -- with its motto of `` Everyone has a right to be beautiful '' -- focuses on a problem that is particularly severe in that country . Thousands of Angolans have been maimed by mines buried during a bloody 27-year civil war . The war began shortly after the country 's independence from Portugal in 1975 and ended six years ago , killing 1.5 million people . Warring sides buried millions of landmines to depopulate areas , slow the movement of opposing forces and defend towns , bridges and power lines . Despite an extensive de-mining program since the end of the war , Angola remains one of the most mined countries in Africa . The mines are so prevalent that their legacy was immediately obvious when Norwegian artist Morten Traavik first visited the southern African nation in 2003 , a year after the war ended . `` The whole country was littered with landmines left over from the conflict , '' Traavik said . `` You virtually could n't move anywhere because most of the country was n't even surveyed for landmines , let alone cleared . '' While there , Traavik judged a neighborhood beauty contest in the capital of Luanda -- and got the idea for the landmine pageant . Finding money for it proved difficult . Traavik said several nongovernmental organizations turned him down , with one labeling his idea a `` freak show . '' `` That says more about your own attitudes toward the disabled people -- and how you think Africans are supposed to be and look like -- than it does our project , '' he said . Soon after , Traavik won the blessing of the Angolan government . And he eventually was able to change the minds of people who were initially reluctant , said Becky Thomson , mine action program manager for the nongovernmental group Norwegian People 's Aid . `` I think one of the reasons quite a few of us changed our initial reservations and are seeing it in a different light is very much linked to the fact that when you see the photographs , you see that the women are profiled with dignity , '' Thomson said . `` That is really important . '' Indeed , dignity is what spurred several of the women to participate . Contestant Ana Diogo is a 32-year-old widowed mother of three who lost her leg to an Italian-made mine in 1984 . Diogo is unemployed , selling tomatoes on the streets when she can find any . She said she hopes the pageant will give her a chance at a better life . Her dream job ? `` Anything , '' she said . E-mail to a friend .
Pageant goal is to restore pride to women who lost limbs to Angola 's landmines . Organizers also want to raise awareness about danger of buried landmines . Comment: Thousands of Angolans have been maimed by landmines during 27-year civil war .