Shaida Buari

Shaida Buari was born in Accra, Ghana to Alhaji Sidiku Buari;^[2] a business magnate as well as a musician who for 12 years, held the office of the president of the Musician Union of Ghana, and Elizabeth Mirabelle Odonkor who runs a bridal shop and PR service for women in Accra. Her parents divorced in 1997. She has two younger brothers: Sidiku Buari Jr., an engineer who runs his own auto shop, and King Faisal Buari; motivational speaker and owner of the Buarich Group of Companies.^[3] Nadia Buari,^[2] is her half sister. She attended the Alsyd Academy for her basic education. She went to St. Mary's High School in Accra, where she was elected entertainment prefect and held fundraisers for several school projects. It was also in high school that her modelling career took off after she won the (now defunct) Source modeling competition in 1998. Following appearances in several television commercials, she entered and won the Miss Ghana pageant in 2002, with which she started her philanthropic work. She also competed in the Face of Africa modelling competition where she made it to the final five.

Buari graduated with honors from the University of Ghana,^[4] majoring in psychology with a minor in political science. She volunteered at the psychiatry hospital in Accra where she researched on the correlation between tumor location and mental illness at the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital for a year.

Buari represented Ghana in the Miss World Pageant in 2003. As part of her social responsibility project as title winner, she worked with UNICEF, Right To Play on projects relating to sensitisation on social stigma that plagues HIV/AIDS patients, as well as helping to educate parents on the importance of certain vaccinations in helping curb diseases in young children. This exposure let to her forming her non profit organization; Helplink Foundation. Buari in collaboration with certain corporate entities successfully footed the hospital bills of a number of children who needed that assistance.^[5]