When the late French fash­ion de­sign­er and busi­ness­woman Co­co Chanel said “I wasn’t born with pow­er – I stitched it by hand, one thread at a time,” she may as well have been re­fer­ring to Siparia seam­stress, Abena Med­i­na.

Med­i­na, the own­er of Abena The Sewing Fac­to­ry, is in­tent on build­ing a lit­er­al fac­to­ry in her com­mu­ni­ty, and told Busi­ness Guardian, “I am not go­ing to stop un­til I get it.”

She en­vi­sions a place where peo­ple can get cus­tom-made cloth­ing, al­ter­ations done, as well as the op­tion of learn­ing to sew. Med­i­na cur­rent­ly teach­es sewing and does a bit of cus­tom-made clothes on a small scale, but she is com­mit­ted to pre­vent­ing the art of sewing from dy­ing on her watch.