Behind every great product… is a passionate tailor. At ANKAA, that’s Stanley!⁠ ⁠ Stanley's an expert upcycler, a passionate gown tailor, and he will bring any idea to life. Basically: if you can see it, he can make it!⁠ And if you play pétanque against him... you WILL lose!⁠ We don't make the rules.⁠ ⁠ 🔥⁠

Put your hands up for the hands that bring ANKAA to life 🥰⁠ ⁠ Hands that create beautiful things, stitch by stitch. Hands that share gifts and smiles. Hands that high-five, encourage, and celebrate every small victory. These are the hands that make it all possible!⁠ ⁠ Help us keep our hands creating, sharing, and celebrating every day in 2026.⁠ ⁠ 🫶🏻✊🏽🤲🏾👏🏼🙌🏿⁠

Meet Maria: the woman who ⁠will put Duolingo out of business ⚡⁠ ⁠ Let us introduce you to Maria, who has been teaching Greek at ANKAA for the past five years. Maria knows the A1 syllabus like the back of her hand. She also knows Russian and is learning Farsi. She is a polyglot, a proud cat mother, a hip hop dancer, and a brilliant teacher.⁠ ⁠ Her students’ feedback is worth a thousand words: “Maria is a fantastic teacher, her teaching method is really helpful to understand the language in a better way. She is calm and super helpful to solve all of our class related problems. I want her again in my future lessons at ANKAA.”⁠ ⁠ Or better: when someone answered the question “What did you like most about the course?” with a simple, whole-hearted, self-explanatory:⁠ ⁠ “My teacher is Maria.”⁠ ⁠ ✏️♥️⁠

Bringing a certain je ne sais quoi to ANKAA since 2016, we bring you… 🥁🥁🥁 Mariangela.⁠ ⁠ ANKAA’s Production and Programme Manager, Mariangela, is a generous teacher and a serious designer. She sews, she dances, she climbs, she wears @textales_eu designer clothes to the office, she’s giving you the last minute NYE outfit inspiration you need right now!⁠ ⁠ What can’t she do? We’re not quite sure yet.⁠ ⁠ 💃⁠

The garden is in safe hands, with Tonia 🤗⁠ ⁠ We asked Tonia, our garden's fairy godmother-volunteer to show us her 5 favourite plants from the space. But Tonia does not do rankings: she loves all plants equally (no favourites!)⁠ ⁠ Instead, she showed us how to make compost, how to propagate a plant, and how to care for our beautiful garden. This is the first Tonia-DIY of the season, where we learn how to propagate a plant in three simple steps. Out of many ways to propagate, this is Tonia's easy technique for ornamental plants:⁠ ⁠ 1) Cut the plant of your choice, making sure you keep 3 "knots" (or nodes) of the plant⁠. Take out some leaves from the cutting, so the stem can grow new roots.⁠ ⁠ 2) Put your cutting in water, until it grows new roots.⁠ ⁠ 3) Make a hole in soil, and put your cutting in there, making sure all nodes are in the soil.⁠ ⁠ Repeat the process as many times as you want 🔂 and stay tuned for Tonia's next tutorial.⁠ ⁠ 🌱⁠

Lucky you! The first person you will see when you come to our space, is Violetta ⭐⁠ ⁠ Violetta is the "welcome!" person, here at ANKAA. She is the one who will register you for a class, guide you around the space, receive your volunteer application, refer you to other support services, draw you a beautiful birthday card... and the list goes on!⁠ ⁠ With her many tasks come many talents, and our many lucks for sharing her calm, warm presence.⁠ ⁠ 🏡

Bedrya: the seamstress, the teacher, the legend. Bedrya always delivers: flawless products, sharp creative ideas, and the jebena with warm coffee and mandazi on a chilly November morning. We’re lucky to be in Bedrya’s team, to receive her hugs, to hear her students rave about her classes… and to always receive her honest feedback 💗 ☕

Watch out, fashion world: Christi’s coming through 🔥 Christi came to ANKAA for the first time in the beginning of the year. She graduated our Tailoring Beginners course with flying colours, and almost a year later, she is completing the Tailoring Intermediate course. In parallel, and with the long-term goal of designing and creating her own brand, Christi comes to the Open Lab and practices in her own time, every week. Nothing can stop her! Good luck with your exam Christi, and see you next year! 🧵

Théo and Isabella: your top crossworders in town! Every day at 1:30PM, we receive a text: “lunch is ready!” (thank you Saffron Kitchen Project). By 1:31PM, Théo and Isabella are sitting at the table, crosswords book open. Isabella is ANKAA’s Project Manager. Théo is one of ANKAA’s board members. But for a brief moment each day, they are crossword experts. It’s a tradition, a moment that echoes what ANKAA works for: teamwork, well-being, and a sense of community. 🧩

Meet Naouel: ANKAA’s master multi-tasker. Naouel is a Tailoring student, a Greek student, and a Communications volunteer. You’re probably thinking: “wow, that's a lot of things!” But Naouel still finds time to develop her own fashion collection, to complete her Arts degree and to go to Il Toto for coffee (not sponsored). Is she multi-tasking, or is she procrastinating getting her driving license? We say she’s a determined, fast-working teammate who does not shy away from new challenges and opportunities! And that we are lucky to have her with us. 🚀