Scarsdale Residents Make Humanitarian Trip to Rwanda

Local realtor Anne Moretti and Scarsdale resident Ruth Kohn have just returned from a trip to Rwanda where they donated school supplies and volunteered as teachers at the Mahama Refugee Camp, working with students in the Mahama English Club. In addition to school supplies, they handed out solar hats imprinted with the Sotheby's International Realty® logo to each of the students.

The Mahama Refugee Camp was established in 2015 in the remote southeastern corner of Rwanda by UNHCR, and the camp has been providing safe shelter for Burundian refugees fleeing the violence in their country. Today, there are over 51,000 Burundian refugees at Mahama Camp, with more refugees arriving daily. For the past year, Moretti has been supporting the Mahama English Club, a group of 103 refugees at the camp who came together and committed themselves to learning English. Moretti has provided classroom resources for the group, primarily through personal commissions earned from her home sales. This year, she increased her commitment and also enlisted the support of Scarsdale friend Ruth Kohn to join her in teaching at Mahama for a few weeks. The two worked together, along with a Rwandan partner, to create an intensive English language program for the students. It was an incredibly exciting and rewarding experience, Moretti says.

Moretti has had a lifelong interest in the people and cultures of Africa. She studied African politics at Georgetown, and she has made numerous trips to Africa since her first visit in 1979. Five years ago, she began supporting The Akilah Institute, a college in Rwanda run exclusively for educating women. She actively works on Akilah fund-raising, and she visits Akilah's main campus in Rwanda every year. Last year, Akilah faced a new challenge when it was forced to close its second campus in neighboring Burundi due to that country's deteriorating political situation. The decision was made to bring many of the Burundian students into Akilah's Rwanda campus, and Moretti did a fundraiser to help cover tuition costs for the additional students. After visiting Akilah last year, she scheduled a visit down to the Mahama Refugee Camp for two days. According to Moretti, she wanted to witness first-hand the refugee situation as the Burundian mass exodus was a tragedy unfolding. It was during that trip that she discovered the spirited students of Mahama English Club.

"I was hooked," said Moretti. "The seriousness, dedication and sheer grit that these refugees showed in studying English while at the same time living in the most unimaginably difficult conditions as refugees was something hard to imagine. They needed help, and I decided I should and could do something."

The Mahama English Club currently has over 100 students, and each has his/her own life goals. In addition to the brand-imprinted solar hats, which provide light for students to read in the dark, Moretti and her team brought other supplies on their recent visit. These included English language workbooks, classroom copybooks, personalized leather notebooks, pens, pencils, sharpeners, inspirational posters, Oxford dictionaries, flash cards, books and magazines for a newly created library, and a few electronic devices. Moretti spent a session every day teaching technology, explaining the functionality and innovation behind these vital tools.

"The continuous support and passion Anne has for the Mahama English Club and the Burundian refugees is simply incredible," said Brad Kimmelman, manager of Julia B. Fee Sotheby's International Realty's Scarsdale brokerage. "Her selflessness and devotion to the cause is an inspiration to all."

There are over two hundred more refugees waiting to join the English Club. For additional information, or to learn how to help support the Mahama English Club, please contact Anne Moretti at [email protected].