From refugee to global philanthropist, Sioux Falls woman brings powerful voice to LSS board

This piece is sponsored by LSS of South Dakota.

When Theresa Kashale attends her first meeting as a new member of the LSS of South Dakota board of directors this month, it’s hard to overstate the significance the moment will bring.

For Kashale, a seat at this boardroom table puts her back at the place “that helped me become who I am,” she said.

Her story is nothing short of exceptional. More than 30 years ago, she arrived in Sioux Falls scarred by unimaginable violence, knowing no one and unable to speak English. In the decades since, she has written her own version of an American success story that now spans multiple generations and is having a global impact.

The “front door” for all of it was LSS.

“They’re here to help people make a good transition, to acculturate,” she said. “Our case manager helped us find an apartment, helped with job training and introduced how to live well in the United States.”

Born in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Kashale was forced into an arranged marriage at age 15 and moved to the neighboring country of Burundi with her then husband, who was working there at the Embassy of Congo. In 1993, they experienced extreme genocide in Rwanda and Burundi.

The U.S. granted the family asylum, and they moved to Sioux Falls with their four young sons.

Kashale went to work at Smithfield Foods and cleaned hotel rooms at the Holiday Inn City Centre. At the pork processing plant, she prayed daily that the machine she operated wouldn’t cut off her fingers.

“I said to myself, ‘I need to learn this language,'” she said. “I would go to the library during my break time and take picture books with words and read all the kindergarten books. And then all the first grade ones. So it was one thing at a time. My kids would come with their spelling words, and we’d practice.”

One day, the Sunday school teacher at the church the family attended asked to meet Kashale.

“She told me she thought I should be a teacher because my kids were nice. I said: ‘Me, a teacher? No, no English.’ And she said, ‘I will help you.’ And this woman and another woman and another woman began teaching me and loving me and loving my kids.”

She ultimately enrolled at Southeast Technical College, where her mentor sat side-by-side in English class with her, “so I went and then finished, and then they said, ‘You need to go to USF.'”

She graduated from the University of Sioux Falls with a teaching degree.

“And USF said, ‘We want you to get your master’s,’ so I went back and got my master’s. And I was curious: What do people with a doctorate degree do? What books do they read? So then I went and did my Ph.D and graduated.”

For 27 years, Kashale taught students of all ages, primarily through the Sioux Falls School District and largely those still learning to speak English.

But those are far from the only children she has touched.

“After I graduated from USF undergrad, I went to Africa in 2006, and I started to have a vision for the children I left behind,” she said.

It led her to fundraise enough to begin an orphanage — Theresa’s House — which so far has helped more than 350 children.

“Now, some of the children we helped are teachers and principals,” she said. “Some started their own companies. I suffer trauma because of what I saw. At one point, I said, ‘God, life should just end.’ But our loving God and his power healed me tremendously, and he said, ‘You need to heal others.’ I was here for a reason. Now, I know.”

All five of her sons have gone on to college. Her oldest is now a supervisor at Smithfield, and “he orders the meat for all of Smithfield,” she said. Another son is an accountant who helps immigrant families who don’t understand taxes and bookkeeping. Her third is a psychologist with his own practice in Sioux Falls. Her fourth worked to put his wife through school and is now finishing a computer programming degree, and her youngest graduated from USF with a social science degree and minor in theology.

She recently returned from bringing her two youngest sons to show them Theresa’s House for the first time.

“It was amazing for them to see the work Mom started,” Kashale said. “My son looked at me and said, ‘Mom, we could have been those kids if it weren’t for working hard.’ And LSS played a big part in that. So when I’m giving back to LSS, it’s not just giving back. This is the place that helped me to become who I am.”

As a member of the board, Kashale brings an invaluable perspective — of what’s possible for new Americans but also of the profound impact that can be made when someone steps forward to help.

“LSS came into my life at a time when I was so vulnerable, so down, so traumatized by killing and loss,” she said.

“I needed to give my kids a wonderful life, a life of stability and not fear. And so many good people embraced us and loved our family that the love started to magnify the good and the bad started to diminish. There were so many good things happening to us that the bad things died out. This was a home for me at LSS. It became the place where I felt like I could do it. There was hope. There was the hope of good things to come tomorrow.”