Daily Graphic, pg 11, Thursday Jan. 29/09
Story: Rebecca Quaicoe-Duho
In addition to her exploit in designing clothing for beauty pageants and for the international market, Mrs Angelina Ama Asantewaa Matey (nee Amoako), proprietress of Angilo Batiks and Fashion Designs enjoys training young girls, some of them deprived and unable to pay for the cost of their training.
She sees that as a way of contributing to the skills development of the youth and also giving back to society the educational benefits she has enjoyed over the years as a Ghanaian.
Angilo Batiks and Fashion Designs, located at Tema, is into clothing and textile designing and the training of the youth in fashion designing.
Mrs Matey, who had her initial training at the Tema Technical Institute where she studied general tailoring for three years between 1990 and 1993, has her motto as “Empowering young ladies with self-employable skills with requisite foundation and sound financial base”.
She said her objective is "to empower young ladies who would otherwise have taken to frivolous behaviour with employable skills to develop and equip them with the requisite foundation upon which a sound financial base can be laid for their future sustenance".
Mrs Matey, who exports some of her clothing to Europe and South Africa, was awarded in 2004 by the Ministry of Trade and Industry at a National Friday Wear Competition. She also won a National Youth Employment award for youth employment and has participated in a number of fashion shows and fairs.
Although her target is young ladies, she also trains boys and for the past 10 years that she has been in the fashion business, she has trained about 200 young people.
With her present class of 20 students, made up of 19 women and a man, Mrs Matey intends to hold a graduation ceremony for eight of her students as part of activities to mark her 10 years in the fashion business.
The climax of activities will be a raffle draw which has as its first prize, a KQ salon car donated by Sanda Motors. The second prize will be a motorbike; the third, a double door fridge and fourth, a plasma television. Other prizes include a microwave oven, mobile phones and wax prints.
Mrs Matey, who holds a diploma in Fashion Designing from the School of Fashion and Design and also holds a certificate in modern fashion designing from South Africa, said her aim of introducing the raffle draw is to solicit funds with the proceeds from a GH¢2 ticket which will be launched on February 13, 2009 at the Forecourt of the Tema Community Centre. That, she said, will enable her to continue providing free training to her students.
She said most of the youth that she trains are often not able to pay their fees and, therefore, for the past 10 years she has committed herself to putting her machines at the disposal of her students while they are under training.
She said that had made it possible for many deprived youth in and around Tema to have free training at the centre.
However, she says what breaks her heart is that most of the students that she trains are unable to establish themselves due to their inability to raise funds to purchase equipment to set up their businesses and they end up as petty traders or engage in other activities in order to make ends meet. That is why she has decided to introduce the raffle draw, saying that she will use proceeds from the raffle to give her students the foundation to start their own fashion homes.
Mrs Matey, who also designs weekend wears for presenters on TV3, has published a motivational magazine dubbed 'Total Woman', which has a first and second edition, to inspire the youth, especially young girls, to strive and support themselves through any venture they engage in.
In the magazine she educates women, especially the married ones, on how to keep their homes and present themselves in public.
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