From Making Dresses To Her Barbie Dolls To Owning Her Own Fashion House In Bethlehem
Sandra Wadie George Aama is a twenty six year old fashion designer from Bethlehem city. Her love for fashion started early on in life when she was in seventh grade. At that time Sandra started imagining new design for dresses she wished she would wear when she grows up, and to make her dream a reality, even though she was still a young girl she started making fancy dresses for her own Barbie dolls as she played with them.
From that early stage in her life Sandra discovered her passion for fashion design and drawing and decided that she will make it her career choice. One of the major influences in Sandra’s life was her late father who kept motivating her and encouraging her to follow her dreams, as he always encouraged her to pursue an education in fashion design especially in Italy.
Growing up Sandra comes from a family with many relatives, as they a noticed her love for fashion design they began sending her their own clothes and dresses for her to adjust them to fit and even change their entire design. Having such validation from the people she loved and looked up for the most, it encouraged her even more to take bigger steps towards achieving her dream of becoming a well known fashion designer.
Unfortunately as she was about to finish high school and was aspiring for her trip to Italy her father passed away leaving her torn between losing her true support that always encouraged her and moving on in life to fulfill her dreams. Due to her unfortunate circumstance she couldn’t go to Italy and leave her mom, brother and sisters alone by themselves, she had to give up on her childhood dream of going to Italy. She instead started pursing an education in fashion design locally in Bethlehem.
The motivation she held on dearly from her late dad kept fueling her ambition as he always wanted to see her as a successful fashion designer, and that’s the reason why now she calls herself Sandra Wadie Fashion House as a dedication to her father’s name and memory. Sandra is very grateful for all the love and support she got from the people around her who believed in her and helped her in anyway they can to see her shine even brighter, she is so thankful for all her relatives for their support and especially her loving husband who always stood by her no matter what she was going through.
Gladly Sandra managed to get a fashion design degree from Italy but she had to do it online because she didn’t have the capabilities to travel for a prolonged period of time abroad.
She holds a diploma in Fashion Design from the Institute of Fashion and Textile. While studying at the institute, she was awarded a scholarship from the Royal Danish Academy of Design in Copenhagen in 2013. She holds many participations in local and international courses. She is a participant in a training workshop with ACAD Agricultural Development Center on the topic of establishing small enterprises and converting them to medium and large scale 2015.
She holds a course with the Institute for Community Partnership on the subject of project management and making economic plans. In addition she holds the best project idea within the framework of the YEP project in Sharm El-Sheikh 2015.
In 2018 she opened her own fashion hose Sandra Wadie in Bethlehem, in addition to doing her own first fashion show with her exclusive designs with the help and funding from a British institution.
Sandra’s story is a story of passion, sacrifice and hard work. She still faces many difficulties ranging from finding the necessary expertise and guidance to allocating raw materials all while doing everything herself without anyone helping or guiding her, but someone like Sandra is not the type of person who gives up easily, every time we meet her she always fills the room with so much positive energy and hope for a better future that encourages us to keep working hard for our dreams as well.