Mrs. Awurabena Gloria Okrah loves playing with fabrics and putting stitches on them. It’s lucrative, utilises her imagination and allows her to meet a varied number of people.
The 69-year-old woman entrepreneur discovered the art of sewing at an early age from her aunt together with her two other sisters and became interested in learning more.
She was born to Kojo Hammond Sekyiamah and Henrietta Yaa Darkoa Sekyiamah in Accra, Ghana.
She is the fifth of three older brothers and two sisters and is married to Mr. Richard Obeng Okrah, her university sweetheart, whom she met during her 21st birthday bash, organised by her uncle when she first entered the University of Ghana, Legon.
They have three biological sons and five adopted children all of whom are married now.
After her secondary education at Accra Girls Senior High, her Sixth Form at Wesley Girls and her first degree at the University of Ghana, Mrs. Okrah started her career as a teacher at Mfantsiman Girls Secondary School and later at the Presbyterian Boys Secondary School (PRESEC) Legon, Accra. She later attained a post graduate degree at the University of Cape Coast where she studied Education.
After teaching for ten years, she joined Opportunities Industrialisation Centre as a Student Services Manager, leaving after five years service as Programmes Manager.
Awurabena’s goal as a teacher was to imbibe in the youth some qualities which she and her siblings where brought up with, to respect and appreciate all people. However, she had to take up sewing as a second job to be able to augment her salary at the time the country was experiencing “Operation Feed Yourself,” to help with family expenses.
She started sewing with the machine given to her by her husband during their customary marriage ceremony in her living room. But more fun as her teaching job was, she had to take up sewing full time since it was quite rewarding than teaching and her sewing clientele kept growing.
In 1985 after thoughtful planning, she started the ‘WinGlow Clothing and Textiles Enterprise,’ which expanded from just sewing to include the production of digitised embroidery in fabrics to innovate a unique product for the market using Ghanaian cultural symbols. She now runs a fashion school under the name: “WinGlow Fashion,” which has about 100 regular students and many others on flexible learning time tables.
Once the demand for professional designers on the market begun to rise, Awurabena decided to make its learning as simple and easy as possible by introducing modules structured such that at the end of 21 days, people who have the zeal to play out their passion in sewing but do not have the time or money are able to learn to design dresses as perfectly as people who go through the traditional 2-3 years sewing training.
Modules are tailored so that fashion instructors who need on the job training can also benefit. Though the economy has been turbulent in recent years, Awurabena has embarked on various corporate social responsibility activities such as free Exterior and Interior Deco training, attachments and internships granted for students from the universities and the polytechnics and her venture into entrepreneurship has paid off well.
She has won many local and international awards to her credit. She has picked up awards for Entrepreneurship in Fashion and Export in 2005 from the Accra Girls High School, an Excellence Award in Exterior and Interior Decoration of the year 2016, from the same school, Association of Ghana Industries (AGI) award for Small Scale Garment and Textiles Leather Sector and the President’s National Award for Export Achievement 2015.
She also serves on the Board of Directors of Accra Girls as the Board Chairperson and has been a member of the AGI for over 10 years.
Awurabena attends church at Ridge Church Manet branch and has mentored a lot of people, and finds strength in the Bible verses Joshua 1:1 and Mathew 28:19-21.
Although she does not enjoy football and boxing because of the violence portrayed in them, she enjoys playing tennis and played for the Mensa Saba Hall while in the university.
Because she loves sports, she takes early morning walks before breakfast two or three times every week.
This is Awurabena’s message to the youth: “The sky is your limit provided you have faith in yourself; you have principles and are disciplined and hardworking.”
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