Rachael "Richa" Maria Adhia (born 1 May 1988) is a Tanzanian model and beauty pageant titleholder won Miss Earth Tanzania 2006,

Miss Tanzania Miss Tanzania is a national Beauty pageant in Tanzania. History Miss Tanzania started in the 1967 and the participants for the most part were from Dar es Salaam, the winners were however not sent to compete internationally. In 1968, the govern ...

2007 and Miss India Tanzania 2010. She is of Indian descent with family origins from Calangute,

Goa Goa (; ; ) is a state on the southwestern coast of India within the Konkan region, geographically separated from the Deccan highlands by the Western Ghats. It is bound by the Indian states of Maharashtra to the north, and Karnataka to the ...

who was born and brought up in Tanzania. She represented

Tanzania Tanzania, officially the United Republic of Tanzania, is a country in East Africa within the African Great Lakes region. It is bordered by Uganda to the northwest; Kenya to the northeast; the Indian Ocean to the east; Mozambique and Malawi to t ...

in both

Miss Earth 2006 Miss Earth 2006 was the sixth edition of the Miss Earth pageant, held at the grounds of the National Museum of the Philippines in Manila, Philippines, on 26 November 2006. At the end of the event, Alexandra Braun of Venezuela crowned Hil Hern� ...

in the Philippines and

Miss World 2007 Miss World 2007 was the 57th edition of the Miss World pageant, held at the Crown of Beauty Theatre in Sanya, China, on December 1, 2007. Taťána Kuchařová of the Czech Republic crowned Zhang Zilin of China as her successor at the end of ...

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

. So far, she remains the only Tanzanian beauty pageant contestant to have represented her country in both of the International contests. In 2010 she was also chosen to represent Tanzania at

Miss India Worldwide Miss India Worldwide is a beauty pageant which draws contestants from India and from among members of the Indian diaspora residing in other countries. It is conducted by India Festival Committee (IFC), first founded and headed by Dharmatma Saran ...

pageant.

Early life

Richa Adhia grew up in Mwanza, Tanzania and went to Lake English Medium Primary School. She later moved to the city of Dar Es Salaam and went to Shaban Robert Secondary School. Coming from a humble background, she first began working at the age of 13 and was scouted as a model at the age of 15 by a well-renowned fashion designer Mustafa Hassanali. This went on to become her breakthrough as a famous Indian model who walked the ramp for various designers nationally and internationally. At the age of 19, she joined the beauty pageant world and won various pageants before becoming an entrepreneur and starting a business in beauty, real estate and events management. She later founded Richa Adhia’s Foundation (RAF) which worked with the elderly to provide shelter and free eye treatments supported by IPP Media.

Miss Earth Tanzania 2006

Adhia won Miss Earth Tanzania 2006 and represented

in the Philippines where she was initially counted among the strongest contestants from Africa, after being placed among the Top 15 best swimsuit contestants. However, she was unable to make a cut into the semifinalists in the Final Show.

Miss Tanzania 2007

After completing her reign as Miss Earth Tanzania in 2006, Richa, went ahead to participate in other regional beauty contests and finally won Miss

Kinondoni Kinondoni District, officially the Kinondoni Municipal Council (''Halimashauri ya Manispaa ya Kinondoni'', in Swahili) is one of five districts of the Dar es Salaam Region of Tanzania. The district is bordered to the north by Bagamoyo District ...

2007, after which she was able to participate in

2007 contest which she also won. There was a controversy over her win due to her race, as she was of Indian origin. However, despite the mixed reactions, she went ahead to participate in

contest in

the same year and became the first Asian ethnic contestant to represent an

East Africa East Africa, also known as Eastern Africa or the East of Africa, is a region at the eastern edge of the Africa, African continent, distinguished by its unique geographical, historical, and cultural landscape. Defined in varying scopes, the regi ...

n country in the Miss World contest.

Miss India Worldwide 2010

On 6 March 2010, Richa was chosen to represent

in the Miss India Worldwide contest for the first time, the contest was held in

Durban Durban ( ; , from meaning "bay, lagoon") is the third-most populous city in South Africa, after Johannesburg and Cape Town, and the largest city in the Provinces of South Africa, province of KwaZulu-Natal. Situated on the east coast of South ...

, South Africa where she was placed among the Top Ten contestants and also won a TOP MODEL award.

Acting

In addition to being a model, TV host and an event organizer, Richa has also acted in the following movies/TV shows:

Personal life

In 2018 she married Haninder Sachdeva, a UK based hotelier and entrepreneur and settled in the United Kingdom where they run a hotel asset management company called Eight Continents Hotels and Resorts

References

External links

I am proudly Tanzanian – Miss Kinondoni '07
{{DEFAULTSORT:Adhia, Richa 1988 births Living people People from Mwanza Region Tanzanian female models Tanzanian beauty pageant winners Miss Earth 2006 contestants Miss World 2007 delegates Shaaban Robert Secondary School alumni Tanzanian people of Indian descent Tanzanian people of Goan descent Tanzanian film actresses Actresses of Indian descent Female models of Indian descent Tanzanian emigrants to the United Kingdom Tanzanian actresses