Kong James is another member of the South Sudanese diaspora. He lives in Sioux Falls with his mother and six siblings. He is an entrepreneur by nature and has co-founded a lifestyle brand called Beyond Younique. So far Beyond Younique has two companies under the umbrella organization – a clothing company and a music company. Their motto is “Be Rare, Stay True, Be You”. Beyond Younique sends a positive message to people to love their bodies, no matter what shape or size, and accept themselves as they are.
On the clothing side, they make customized everyday apparel, largely through screen printing. So far their clients are primarily non-profit organizations and student-run groups at schools. Kong and his two business partners work out of the garage at his home, taking up all three stalls! In the year that they’ve been operating, they’ve come a long way, growing a little bit more with every order they receive. Their dream is to open a store front!
However, one thing that has stalled them from growing faster has been the lack of enough screen printers and the lack of a proper cleaning system.
We met Kong at his home in Sioux Falls when we were in town for the ACE Awards. He was kind enough to give us a tour not only of Beyond Younique’s operations, but also of his home! We got to meet his warm and welcoming family and hear all about how passionate Kong is about Beyond Younique from his sisters. Kong also showed us his basement sink, where he typically cleans his screens. It makes quite the mess -and it also forces Kong to bring harmful chemicals into the home.
It was a no brainer to decide that we wanted to help Kong and support his small business! On Day 314, we purchased:
· Additional screens for printing (to increase efficiency)
· Dyes and colors for the screens (to increase efficiency)
· and a Dunk Tank kit to clean the screens safely
Kong had the largest smile on his face when both demonstrating screen printing for us and when opening his new equipment. It was such a joy to see him light up!
