I had the pleasure of interviewing the owner of an organization that set out to help boost Nigeria’s economy and overall morale. Tracey Gordon is the Founder of Shine Nigeria, a program whose mission is to educate, provide clean drinking water & health supplies, provide educational scholarships, business loans, assist in job searches, and provide skills for the youth. She is a New Yorker with a dream and she doesn’t mind if others cannot see it with her because she’s making it happen regardless. The idea came to Gordon not too long ago but the vision is well supported.
She has a team in place from various places in Nigeria who have heard the vision and will soon be working to put it into action. They plan to hit the ground running in early January of 2022, with volunteers working in the orphanages. Lagos, Nigeria will be their new headquarters but all of Nigeria will be positively impacted in the next 3 years and will know the name Shine Nigeria.
Gordon’s original plan was to visit Nigeria and go home but her heart had other plans, you see Gordon has been down this road before. She employs many as a restaurant owner in the U.S but has been passionate about helping others worldwide for a while. She’s worked with companies in the past that allowed her to assist strangers in Asian, Latin American, and African countries with acquiring jobs; that, however, was not enough for Gordon. Gordon’s heart was big and needed to positively influence more people and help more than just adults, She needed to lift up children as well. Gordon needed someone to give to but who? An Ancestry test answered her unspoken question and gave her just the push in the right direction.
