Judith Kangie Gong grew up in a charitable family who are bound by the act of gifting and as she grew older she continued to practice more of it. From her grandmother, father, and her mother, to some extent, the act of gifting has become part of the family DNA.
"I think it is in my blood and I grew up with my family helping people especially my grandmother till date each time someone comes to her she shares the little that she has in her possession and that has always gotten me marveling over the kind of person she is, and I wanted to be like her, same with my father, mother, and uncle"
I have always been an admirer of what she does online, from supporting ladies with startup capital to learn a skill In Jalingo to awarding cash prizes for the Ebony Queens Contest in Taraba State, Judith has truly shown difference when it comes to gifting. As someone who has worked for her during her Black Ebony contest, I have seen how her efforts toward helping individuals are overwhelming. In this conversation with her, I asked her about her early story and what has it been like.
"I have always been this stubborn child while I was growing up, but I am super respectful and peace-loving someone, I had low esteem then and I struggled with it, I did also struggle as a teenager while growing up and most of it was a result of low esteem, I was different and I was not affected by peer pressure and influence, I can still remember the first phone my father got me when he traveled out, It was a blackberry and in my class, no one had a phone, in order not to make them feel bad or intimidated I decided to keep the phone at home. As we journey in life at some point, life itself can get very hard and tough but God's mercies have been with me"
As a young lady who doesn’t depend on someone for anything including the people near her, it is indeed applaudable, although it didn't start today it started when she decided to take a step to be different.
"I started battling self-esteem in my early 20s and I wanted to do more, I wanted to evolve and change so I decided to start a YouTube Channel, starting a YouTube channel was very therapeutic for me, it helped me a lot, I decided to start reaching out to young ladies who I think needed help," she said.
I have read and heard stories about your philanthropy works and I was a witness when you gifted someone 10,000 or so because I corrected his writeup on Facebook. Like how do you do it? The act of gifting? I asked her.
"It is in me to give and it has always been there. There is this story that I will never forget when I left Nigeria for the first time I was stranded in Cotonou, I didn’t know how to go through the bank things in Cotonou I didn’t know who to call and reach out to contact, as of them I reached out to a good friend, he later send a friend of his who schools there, she came and gave me a helping hand, she showed me around Cotonou and where I can exchange money, and I was able to exchange the money. While at Cotonou I used my last money and gifted it out, it was during the prayer session usually held in early January, I had some money I dedicated in my heart to give this money out, so I asked myself why not give it out to people who can learn a skill with the gifts? It is not all about giving money to people but teaching them how to catch the fish and not fish, that was what I did, and then went for what I was agreed upon, that was during that time I applied for a residency permit, I was given the option to choose between Cotonou or Ghana, I have never been to these countries and so I decided to go to Cotonou I don’t know why but my mind choose Cotonou, I took two to three weeks and finally a month before I could get it. It was during that month, while I was preparing I told God I was going to do this. So I came online that day and posted on my Facebook timeline that I wanted to help those who are interested in learning a skill, a lot of ladies applied and what I did was to forward the money to their various bosses, the person they are learning under, I can't express my joy I experience after doing that. That day I slept and I dreamt that I got a message which read that I had gotten my resident permit, so the next day I checked but didn’t see anything, I wasn't disturbed never and continued doing what I was doing, later that day I received a call that my passport and resident permit are ready. Gifting has always been in me, last year I started Ebony Queen, it is a charitable event and doesn’t have any crown attached to it or so and I want to do it to help other people and give that amount of money to people that worth it, we are making preparations towards the second editions" she said
Some of the skills she paid for the ladies to learn include makeup, tailoring, and baking.
"It was in January 2021 when she made a post asking five people who are interested in learning any trade of their choice I saw the post after an hour and I tried my luck, she asked a few questions I answered, and she then asked for the price and I told her it was 23k. She sent me the money and at the same minute the whole conversation wasn't up to 10 minutes, Then I registered and sent her a few pictures of my first work" said Lilian a beneficiary of the skill acquisition
Do you believe that the act of gifting should be done when you have enough at your disposal?
"No, as I mentioned earlier, gifting should be done with the sincerity of the act and no strings attached," she said
Judith Kangie Gong is a young woman who is making a difference in the world through gifting and the pathway she took is both meaningful, impactful, and rewarding. Kong's story is a reminder that we all have the power to make a difference and that even the smallest acts of kindness can have a big impact. She currently runs Jhulxe Empire which houses The Jhluxe Beauty Studio and provides services like makeup, skincare treatment, and painless body piercing.
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