Kirsta Benedetti

Founder

In 2009, Kirsta and her husband sold everything and moved to Egypt to establish a non-governmental arts organization with the purpose of teaching art and self-expression as a means of peacemaking. As they settled into their new home, they were quickly humbled by how little they knew and how limiting that can be, going from being competent college graduates to being foreigners only able to function as a child might. This experience built in her an empathy for people moving to new countries and trying to establish a life. 

When Kirsta and her husband moved back to the United States in 2012, she met an Egyptian woman who had lived on Riverview Drive for many years. This woman told Kirsta of the many struggles she and other immigrants at Riverview face—the men working long hours and the women living in isolation, limited by the lack of transportation and English competence.

A few years later, Kirsta met Bruce Bernard, the owner of many Riverview apartments, who wished to invest in the neighborhood on a more personal level. Through Bruce, Kirsta connected with a small group of people with the same vision, discussing ways to help and eventually proposing the creation of a resource center in the heart of the neighborhood. This group then became the official board and filed to be registered as a non-profit with 501c3 status. In 2015 Bruce agreed to let the the team rent one of his apartments and two extra rooms to use for the center, thus beginning the journey of building what became the Riverview International Center.

Kirsta is so grateful, not only to be doing something that brings real change to a marginalized people, but also to have the opportunity to give the gift of help and welcome that she received in Egypt.