Absolutely Adorable Active Adiza

Adiza Bala Faila (born Wednesday, 27th March, 1991) is popularly known as Hajia Adiza Bala Faila on social media. Hajia is a title that is mostly given to a Muslim woman who performs Hajj. Hajj is one of the five pillars of Islam which requires a Muslim to embark on a journey to Makkah, a city in Saudi Arabia, to perform some religious rituals. Adiza happens to have a number of reasons why she is called Hajia. The first reason is that she was named after her grandmothers (her father's mother and her mother's mother who both bore the same name). As custom demands, older people's name were not supposed to be mentioned without any respectable title so she was called simply Hajia. Due to the many hajias in her family then, she was nicknamed, Hajia Karama (little Hajia). She was also called Naana as her father's mother was mostly called. She was also called Balaaraba which meant either a Wednesday born or an Arab woman (a name people give to fair ladies). Adiza was also fortunate to embark on Hajj in 2008 at the young age of sixteen (16) and she performed Hajj again in 2017 at the age of twenty-six (26) thereby gaining the title, Hajia.

Hajia Adiza was born and bred in Koforidua in the Eastern Region of Ghana. She is the last of the six children (four males, two females) of her parents (A Zabarma father and a Fulani mother). Two of her brothers and a sister are late and so it is left with three of them now. Hajia Adiza is fair in complexion, slim and she is 162 cm (5.3 feet) tall. She has a tiny voice such that most people who hear her speak are enthused by the fact that her voice and her body do not match.

Hajia Adiza had her pre-school and primary education at Asokore Centre, Koforidua Roman Catholic, Effiduase Nursery/Primary and Ghateco Preparatory Schools respectively. She started her Junior High School at Ghateco JHS but she had to take a leave from school in order to travel to Italy for a while. She returned to continue her Junior High School in Ghateco where she wrote her Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) in 2009. As she awaited her results, she studied Computer Software at ICL Computek Training School in Koforidua. She proceeded to Ghana Senior High School where she offered Home Economics from 2009 to 2013 (the four year badge). During her third year in school, she registered for the November/December (NOV/DEC) remedial classes at Action Remedial School. Both her NOV/DEC remedial examination and WASSCE results were good so she applied to the University of Ghana, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), University for Development Studies (UDS) and Kumasi Polytechnic. Luckily, she gained admission into all these schools but she chose the University of Ghana which was her dream school. She pursued a Bachelor of Science in Family and Consumer Sciences in the College of Agriculture and Consumer Sciences. She graduated successfully in 2017.

During her degree, she successfully combined her studies with work and other commitments. She worked with her father’s company, Faila Cooperative Transport, for some time. She did her first internship at the Koforidua Regional Hospital in 2014. She also did another internship at the University of Ghana Hospital, Legon. She is currently doing her National Service with COCOBOD at the COCOBOD Clinic in Accra.

Hajia Adiza is also a young entrepreneur who is striving to become one of the most celebrated entrepreneurs in Ghana and the world. She is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the popular Shamfiz J Modeling House which has branches in Accra and Koforidua. She was the host of a TV Show that she dubbed 'Islam and Fashion' on Guidance TV. Unfortunately however, even though a number of episodes had been shot, it was only the advertisement of the programme that was constantly played on the TV because the TV station closed down due to some challenges. She hopes however to find airtime on any television network for this show. She has also worked with the Ghana Hajj Board as part of their welfare and documentation officers.

Hajia Adiza is a hijabi (a woman who observes the Islamic code of dressing). Although she came from a family where the females were made to dress decently, they only covered their hair but they did not observe the full hijab. She used to love dressing to kill as she saw herself as a model and a 'fashionista'. Sometimes when she dressed up to go out with her friends, her parents would send her back to her room to dress a lot more decently. She was motivated to start doing the hijab when the GMSA in her SHS were invited to a programme at the Koforidua Polytechnic where a popular speaker (Aburof M Kishki) spoke on the topic; 'Walk Your Talk.' She thought that as a Muslim girl who was very much involved with the GMSA of her school, she needed to be a true representation of what she stood for. She also had a Muslim teacher and a friend who had both completed UDS but were hijabis so she started the hijab right after Senior High School even though she was on and off with it. When she started schooling at the University of Ghana, she was motivated to don the hijab everyday due to the many Muslim hijabis she saw on campus and the fact that she was an active member of GMSA made her feel it was wrong to not do the hijab. She also noticed that her parents loved it when she wore the hijab and they encouraged her to keep it up so she stuck to it. Now, without the hijab, she feels naked.

Hajia Adiza believes strongly that helping others even if that means they will become better than you is something all people should find easy to do. She loves to see people happy for the right reasons and due to the challenges she passes through as she sails through her path to success, she likes to teach people to never give up in life no matter the situation they find themselves in. It is for this beautiful nature of hers that she was able to create the Shamfiz J Initiatives, a foundation that helps the poor and the needy in every aspect they are able to.

She has a practice of always sharing her clothes to the poor and the needy around her house during festivities so they could wear and celebrate the festivals with everybody. She then decided to widen her scope by starting the Shamfiz J Initiatives where she could call upon other people’s support in order to reach out to a lot more poor and needy people and orphans, etc.

Other than being the Founder of Shamfiz J Initiatives, she is also a member of Hope for the Street Child Foundation and the Vice President of Awaken Foundation which both undertake humanitarian activities in the country. Shamfiz J is a unique name that she coined, with the help of her cousin, from the abbreviated names of her three late siblings. She hopes to make this name her trademark in terms of business and philanthropic work.

Hajia Adiza is a born leader who has exhibited her leadership skills in diverse ways from a very young age until now. She was the Assistant Entertainment Coordinator of the Entertainment Committee when she was in SHS. She was also the GMSA (Ghana Muslim Students Association) Welfare Coordinator in her Senior High School. She was an active member of the Eastern Regional GMSA, she was the GMSA Vice President in the University of Ghana and the GMSA Vice President at the African Union Hostel (popularly known as Pentagon Hostel) on University of Ghana Campus. Hajia Adiza was also a member of the Junior Common Room (JCR) of Pentagon Hostel. She endeavoured to serve as the voice of the few Muslims in the Hostel. Her greatest achievement was when she gained approval from the management of the Hostel for the Muslims to start organising an annual Islamic lecture that is popularly dubbed on campus as 'Islamic Dialogue' for the Hostel. She was once the chairperson of the Welfare Committee of GMSA, Pentagon Hostel. She was the Charity Coordinator for executives under the Women's Commission/Ladies Wing of GMSA in the  University of Ghana. She was a member of the Consumer Advocacy Group in her Department and a member of the Tijaniyya Muslims Association in the University of Ghana. She was the Vice President of ZAMSA, an association of Zabarma, fulani and Gao students in the University of Ghana. She was a volunteer for Change for the Zongo Youth. She is the current Eastern Regional Secretary of the Federation of Muslim Women Association in Ghana (FOMWAG) Youth group.

Hajia Adiza whilst going through secular education also went to Islamic schools where the concentration was on her religion, Islam. She attended Ramaniya Islamic School and then moved to Darul Salam Islamic School where she graduated from in 2017.

Hajia Adiza has always had the passion to become a model but her parents feared that such a dream could lead her wayward and cause her to dress in a manner that was not suitable for the kind of woman they wanted her to grow up into. Due to this fear by her parents and her love for fashion, she chose to establish a Modeling House where she could exhibit her God-given talent in fashion and modeling which will not demand her going nude. She believed that she could, by establishing this Modeling House, present to other Muslim ladies who love to venture into something like this but who may also have this as a barrier, the opportunity to showcase their talents whilst observing their religiously recommended concept of dressing which is known as the Hijab. She also believed that by doing so, she could indirectly popularize the concept of Hijab especially to the non-Muslims thereby curbing the stigma that comes with that kind of dress code. She wants the Muslim women who fear to observe this dress code for fear of stigma and being seen us women who are not good looking to know that one can observe the Hijab and still look good. Shamfiz J Modeling House is concerned with fashion, modeling and photo shoot advertisement. So far, it is the only Islam inclined Modeling House in Ghana. This will present opportunities to Hijab designers to be able to have a better medium of showcasing their various designs. That is, a Muslimah hijabi model will display hijab a lot better than a non-Muslim model because the former knows what the hijab should be all about and the latter mostly doesn't.

Hajia Adiza has priceless mentors who are her father and her mother. She knows with certainty that she could never thank them enough for aiding her through her struggles and challenges from childhood until now. They are the people who groom her on a daily basis but she also has a role model who inspires her to greater heights. This role model is Mrs Samira Bawumia, the wife of the Vice President of the Republic of Ghana. Among the reasons why Mrs Bawumia is her role model is the fact that she has a Fulani background where most ladies are deprived of secular education due to some cultural beliefs, e.t.c. but Mrs Bawumia is an educated, intelligent and smart woman. The fact that she is a Muslim woman, a woman with an acute sense of fashion, an ambitious woman and a woman with a great heart makes her want to be like her now and in the future. Her role model always gives her reasons to be herself, get herself educated and to stand tall as a smart and intelligent Muslim woman.

Hajia Adiza’s favourite colours are yellow, blue and purple with a pinkish feel. Her favourite foods are banku and okro soup and rice with stew. She loves perfume and she loves to make herself happy by having as much fun as possible in the best of ways always. Her hobbies are cooking, touring interesting places, dancing, writing and reading any book or write-up on love, marriage, relationships, fashion and business. The foods she loves cooking most of the time are fufu and light soup, rice in a variety of forms and banku with okro soup or stew. Due to her home economics background and her interest in cooking, it is among her top ambitions to establish a unique kind of restaurant that will be a complex of so many recreational and relaxation facilities. These hobbies make her feel good and lovely and she learns a lot through them.

Among her favourite pastimes is reading and listening to the recitation of the Holy Qur'an and her favourite reciter is Sudais. Her favourite chapters of the Qur'an are Surat Yasin and Surat Al-Ikhlaas, the chapter 36 and chapter 112 of the Holy Qur'an. She feels attached to surat Ya Sin due to the fact that it is the heart of the Qur'an and its subject matter makes her feel very much protected by Allah. Ikhlaas means sincerity and what makes her love it is the fact that it stresses so much on unity.  The sporting activity she loves best is soccer. Her family is a soccer inclined one as her dad and uncles are all former footballers and coaches. Her favourite local and international teams are Kotoko and Chelsea respectively. She also loves to play ludo as a hobby when she is bored and as a game just for the fun of it. The languages she speaks fluently are English, Hausa, Zabarma and Asante-Twi. She also speaks a little Italiano.

Though a very jovial person, when her intentions for doing something are miscontrued to mean something bad when all she wanted was to do good, she gets very sad. One thing that angers her is when someone makes her a promise and fails her without any justifiable reasons or explanations. She also hates lies because she is a very honest person who upholds honesty in great detail. She likes to connect with people and keep good networks as she believes that to be very beneficial in life.

Her greatest achievement, she believes, is the fact that upon all the challenges that could have made her quit school totally at a young age, she still persevered to move through to the University and she completed it successfully. It is among her ambitions to continue with her Masters and PhD as soon as possible. She hopes to become a Pediatrician as she loves catering for children. She dreams to become a business tycoon as well as be an inspiration to people to never give up through strengthening her philanthropic work. She also wants to become a Marriage Counselor and a Family Therapist because among the things that gladden her heart is when she sees a genuinely happy family.

‘Life still goes on: when there is life, there is hope.” This is what keeps her working harder and harder every day in order to see to the realization of her dreams. Her motto has always been, ‘Allah first!”

As a single young lady, Hajia Adiza aspires to find the right partner, get married, have children and build a lovely home whiles working on becoming a Muslimah Star Model and a ‘Fashionista’.

Watch out for her book that will inspire a lot of people who are going through her kind of challenges and even those who are not to believe in themselves, strive harder, move higher every day and never give up!

HAJIA ADIZA BALA FAILA

CEO – Shamfiz J Modeling House

Founder – Shamfiz J Initiatives

Personal Email - osumanuadiza19@gmail.com

Business Contact - 0557797979

Business Email - shamfizj@gmail.com

Website - www.shamfizj.com

Facebook - Hajia Adiza Bala Faila

Instagram - hajiaadizabalafaila

Twitter - hajiaadizabalafaila

Business Facebook - Shamfiz J Modeling House

Business Instagram - shamfizjmodeling

Foundation Facebook - Shamfiz J Initiatives

Composed: Rubaba Mmahajia Rahma Sabtiu