DALLAS—Jane Gow, the founder of nonprofit BeKinder Coffee, fled her home with her family in Saigon after the Vietnam War in 1975.

Gow said she always dreamed of opening a coffee shop because it’s the one place where she would see people come in for a cup and share their stories, their struggles and experiences, ultimately creating a sense of togetherness and community.

“I was 13 years old and there was a lot of hatred toward us,” Gow said. “I think the reason I want to do this is because there was a lot of messages about refugees.”

Journey began with uncertainty

Fleeing their home, Gow’s parents instructed her and her siblings to pack a small bag with a couple sets of clothes, a little food and some money in case they were separated. Her family joined 300 other scared refugees on a small fishing boat, and as they fled Vietnam, huddled together as waves bounced them around and bullets flew past. Gow said she remembered many families left the boat to find another way to escape, as they were fearful for their lives.

As Saigon erupted into flames, Gow and her family pressed on until the small boat hit the open ocean. After several days, a U.S. Navy ship found and transported them to the Philippines. After several days of not eating, Gow and her family found themselves constantly traveling—desperate to find food, shelter and safety. For an entire year, they traveled from camp to camp, but they finally left the final camp upon clearing the mandatory quarantine, passing required testing and finding a sponsor in the U.S.

After arriving in Dallas, Gow’s parents struggled to make ends meet because of language barriers and low-paying jobs.

“My mother was a seamstress, and she doesn’t know English or how to drive a car,” Gow said. “One thing she told me was, ‘I wish I learned those things so I don’t have to depend on anyone else.’”

Working a midnight shift at 16 years old

Gow started working several jobs at 13 years old. She recalled that, at the age of 16, she worked a midnight factory shift job while her classmates were out getting driver’s licenses and cars.

To deal with the emotional trauma of moving away from her home at a young age and being exposed to many dangers on the journey, Gow said she speaks with a therapist to help her understand her behavior and recognize her trauma.

“Looking back, I can understand the certain behavior and why I’m behaving the way I behave, and there’s a lot of trauma there that we never look at and we live with a lot of pains and I want to change that message,” Gow said.

Gow said every day was a struggle, but she and her family made it work.

After she graduated from the University of Texas at Arlington with a degree in mathematics, Gow worked in IT for 35 years. She said attending college was one of the most rewarding things she’s done, helping her reach her dream in providing a financially stable future for herself, her husband, Todd, and their children.

But there was a calling inside her that she heard, and she answered it, officially opening the store Aug. 26, 2024. The coffee shop now may be small, but a cozy aroma fills the room completely as Gow and her employees make fresh coffee and food for customers. Gow said she wants to give refugees like her a chance to better themselves, to have a voice.

BeKinder began with granola bars

“We came up with BeKinder because we feel that just to be kind is really hard, but you can be kinder from where you are,” she said.

Although the storefront didn’t become a reality until 2024, BeKinder’s roots stretch to 2020 in Gow’s own home kitchen. She and her husband eventually started selling their homemade granola bars at the Denton Community Market.

“We would go to the market and we called ourselves ‘BeKinder Coffee,’ and people would come up and say, ‘Oh, I’d love a cup of coffee,’” Gow said. “I said, ‘I don’t have coffee, but I have granola.’”

At first, Todd Gow was nervous of his wife’s ambitions because neither of them knew anything about coffee, much less running a coffee shop.

“When she said, ‘Oh, I’m going to open a coffee shop,’ I was like, ‘What do you know about coffee shops?’” he said. “Now, I have to eat that.”

Todd Gow said he’s excited to see how much BeKinder will grow, and he said he even wants to begin playing live music at the store, paving the way for employees and customers to establish connections through music.

Building community

“We want it to be more than a coffee shop,” Todd Gow said. “We want it to be a community. If the opportunity arises, I think it would be really interesting to have music in the coffee shop and give the opportunity to refugees or their kids to come in and learn about music and play music.”

After moving her business from her kitchen and farmer’s markets to a space at 6500 Greenville Ave., Gow started hiring refugees and asylees, including those from Afghanistan who fled the Taliban’s takeover after U.S. troops withdrew from the country.

“All these women that I work with are hard-working people,” Gow said. “They want to better themselves. They just don’t have the opportunities, and if they have a chance, I know that they would rather be in their own country where they can speak their own language, where they are being understood.”

When Munevver fled Afghanistan with her family after the Taliban took control of Kabul, she said she had no idea what the future would bring. She was leaving her home, neighbors and friends, but she knew it was the only choice she had.

She said leaving Afghanistan was hard, but it was the right decision considering her and her family’s safety and the rights she needed to keep as a woman. Currently, women are not allowed to go to school, hold a job, or leave the home without a male escort. In addition, they are forced to wear clothes that cover every part of their bodies.

“Afghanistan, bad country,” Munevver said. “It’s not working any woman, and this country is for me and all woman is good, because in here, freedom.”

When Munevver finally settled in Dallas, she could already feel a weight lifted off her shoulders. She said she wasn’t afraid to be the person she wanted to be.

Munevver now works as a barista for BeKinder Coffee, which offers her resources and educational opportunities. She’s learning English grammar through BeKinder’s educational partnership with other nonprofits that have an ESL program. She’s also learning how to speak the language by interacting with customers.

“I’m feeling helpful and good person feeling like this,” Munevver said.

Gow’s experience fosters empathy

Recalling her own experience as a Vietnamese refugee, Gow said she can understand Munevver’s situation and that of other refugees and asylees who are employed at BeKinder. She said even from a cultural perspective, their experiences are similar.

“They seem to be very timid,” Gow said. “They always listen to their husband or father and wait for them to make decisions for them, and their English is weak. But it’s good that they were able to get out and work, so I think that alone maybe empowers them, that they can do something for themselves.”

It took Gow a while to find a coffee company to partner with that would meet her dreams and understand what her goals were. She found Full City Rooster in Dallas, sent an email to the owner, telling him her story. Shortly after, their partnership began and continued for a whole year before Gow was able to roast her own beans. But she isn’t stopping there.

“The goal is, I want to be able to eventually go back to Vietnam, visit the farmer, have a relationship with them and also carry the Vietnamese beans,” she said. “I think that will help me complete the whole circle.”

Gow said opening a physical location was a big milestone, but she said she still has bigger plans for her organization, including a scholarship program for refugee employees. She said she also wants to open more locations nearby and house her own roaster to sell coffee beans to other coffee shops. She’s even training an employee to become a manager at Bekinder.

“One of my volunteers put it beautifully,” Gow said. “‘It’s not a cup of coffee, it’s a cause,’” Gow said.