Fatmata Fahisa Yansaneh is a Sierra Leonean creative designer, fashion designer, freelance model, interior architect, CEO, and creative director of Fahisa Fashion World. Her parents are descendants of the Kambia District, Northern Province of Sierra Leone. Her middle name ‘Fahisa’ is a nickname in her local tribe Susu, meaning “relax/comfort.” She lost her mom and dad at a very young age and grew up with her four siblings.
Fatmata Fahisa started her primary school at the Akibo-Betts Primary School where she sat to her National Primary School Certificate Examination (NPSE). She later attended Providence international high School and Government Model Senior Secondary School where she completed her secondary and senior secondary school. She holds a Diploma degree in Banking and Finance from the Institute of Public Administration Management (IPAM-USL). She is currently a final year student at the Limkokwing University pursuing a degree in Interior Architecture and major Interior Design.
Growing up, she used to sew clothes for her doll, which made her relatively fell in love with fashion designing. Her love for art and creativity led her into fashion designing. She has been a freelance model since 2015. She has worked with several fashion and media companies in Sierra Leone like Moliz Fashion House, K3 Empire, TruHitz Entertainment, Izelia Fashion House, Sierra Leone Fashion week 2017, and many more. She was part of the Sierra Leone Fashion Week show as a model. She has involved in many commercial adverts for other modeling houses in Sierra Leone.
She learned fashion design on YouTube. While in university, Fahisa used to surf the internet during her free time after study, it was on YouTube that she came across a video tutorial of a fashion designer, this reignited her feeling of childhood experience sewing clothes for dolls. . She started her own registered fashion design company, Fahisa Fashion World in 2016. Through her business, she has helped in employing young Sierra Leoneans.
She is an epitome of creativity. She can also do beds, headboards, and tufting. She sometimes upload contents on her YouTube channel on how to make tufted beds she can recycle motor tires into tables, chairs, and benches, she can make white cement and also recycle used gloves to make flower vases, she is an artist also, and a very brilliant interior designer.
Fatmata and a team of young creative people thought of an idea that could help curb flooding, mudslides, high rate of rents, especially in Freetown. With the help of her friends, they started an architecture company called Design Cube that involves in mobile housing. Design Cube is a company that transforms cargo containers into mobile houses, offices, and commercial purposes. Design Cube won the 2019 PITCH entrepreneurship competition. They were to represent Sierra Leone at the PITCH entrepreneurship competition in Saudi Arabia, but unfortunately, they didn’t make it to Saudi Arabia. The Design Cube has worked for Bollore and many other companies and private individuals.
Fahisa’s passion for entrepreneurship, creativity, and women’s empowerment and rebranding the image of Sierra Leone from that of war, Ebola, and nothing good to come from Sierra Leone to that of making herself as an example of women empowerment, creativity, and a young Sierra Leonean waking up every morning thinking about empowering young Sierra Leoneans and portraying a positive image of Sierra Leone. She went to the auditions of this year’s AYV Sierra Leone and Africell Housemate Salone Competition in a bid to change the narratives that Sierra Leoneans can do it a more positive way. With her creativity, she can rebrand the image of Sierra Leone by changing the perspective that Sierra Leone is not just about Ebola, Mudslide, and war but also there are many positive things about Sierra Leone and there are brilliant females in Sierra Leone that can do the impossible. She went to the auditions because she believed with this platform, she can do greater things and she can have the target audience she needs for her creative businesses.
