Awa is a designer and jewelry artist with a background in fashion design and business management. Born in Vienna to Sierra Leonean diplomats, she spent her early childhood in Kenema before growing up in Salzburg.
As a teenager in 1989, she won first prize at the Salzburg Youth Speech Contest and placed second nationwide in Austria with a speech on diversity, equality, and inclusion while studying at HBLA Salzburg. She later studied fashion marketing at Parsons School of Design in NYC, where she built an international career across American fashion and design firms, alongside collaborations with NGOs on United Nations–related programs focused on Africa.
Since returning to Austria in 2012, she expended into jewelry design and trained with renowned Austrian goldsmiths. Since 2022, she has been official registered as an artist under her hallmark, AWA.
