Lebanese Diaspora Village Batroun: The Home of Every Lebanese Immigrant, in Lebanon!

Craziness, no?

Look where are we at.

Before I tell you where are we.

A small heaven.

A small heaven in the center of Batroun.

It can gather all the Lebanese people in the world.

A small place

in Batroun, one of the most beautiful cities and villages of the world.

Let me tell you about this area. They worked a lot on it.

Today, it is called Lebanese Diaspora Village which is a village uniting all Lebanese people in the world.

I'm in the center, with the tranquility you are hearing,

the sunshine is everywhere, the weather is amazing and the clouds are above us.

The reflections on this wall,

and places, we always say out food unites us, but this is much more than that.

Our seating unites us, our vault unites us, our windows, the wood,

our traditions and vibes, all of these are here.

It has a guesthouse, a restaurant, coffeeshop, it gathers people,

you can come and talk, relax, and be proud of your Lebanese nationality more and more.

That's crazy. I always say this about food.

I say that food is crazy, but the area is crazy.

Hi Anthony. Wow.

Welcome to Diaspora Village in Batroun.

Noura Saad. In this project, we are managing the project and taking care of it.

First, I want to tell you a bit. Now we are standing on the Phoenician fort,

which was built in the 9th century B.C.

You know that the fort was colonized for years

bu the Ottomans and Romans,

and of course the fort was used for many years.

So you know that houses were built on this fort

and Batroun citizens lived there.

You know, because the fort is an archaeological area,

The General Directorate of Antiquities appropriated it.

Ok, then a decree was issued by the Council of Ministers

and they made the municipality of Batroun rent the fort,

so it would revive and renovate it and take care of it for 20 years.

Of course with a very low amount of money.

With an initiative from LDE, Lebanese Diaspora Energy,

of course we started with a contract with the municipality.

We asked the municipality to make a contract with us so we could take care of this project and renovate it.

You know that LDE is an NGO, it is non profit of course.

With LDE, we make diaspora conferences.

Of course we started in 2014 to make conferences in Lebanon and then

we started to make conferences outside of Lebanon.

So of course in each conference, we told them about this project which is under LDE.

We asked if they could help us to renovate this place.

The story started from this step.

They started to send funds

Each house, we started with the Russian house. We will enter the village and tell you about each house

and show you the fort.

Of course they sent funds and we started. We opened the first house in the first conference for us

which was here in the village.

We opened the Russian house and each year we opened another house.

Look how it was and how it became.

This is how it became and this is how it was.

How it became.

If you can notice how damaged it was.

How much did we work on it so it became that beautiful.

There are 9 houses in the fort, a gift shop, a guest house,

a coffeeshop, a studio, and a big room for events or conferences

if someone wants to use.

A gift shop for everything Lebanese artisan.

Just to highlight, the fort project, the Diaspora Village,

has an aim for everything cultural.

Everything cultural and social and then the other things.

Let me tell you about the fort bakery when we are entering.

There will be a bakery, Coco Bakery.

This is famous, Coco, it has been in Batroun for years, making tasty brioche.

There are 9 houses. 9 houses.

In fact, they are 8 houses and the 9th house does not have a name

because its funding is not done yet.

What has been payed was from LDE so we could finish funding this house because it doesn't have,

no one has taken the house yet.

Can I put it in my name?

We will start with the Lebanese Brazilian house.

The real traditional village, that's nice about it.

If someone hasn't explored Lebanon a lot and if someone wants his kids to know Lebanon,

it is easy, come to here.

The details.

The old tiles, high ceiling, exceptional wood, each stone is beside the other.

The Brazilians diasporas, if the Lebanese people in Brazil want to come to Lebanon

and use the Brazilian house for sleeping, they are welcome.

We were saying that it was very easy, they only need the passport.

Right. So I am Lebanese and this is my Brazilian passport, I sleep here.

Right. You take care of him.

I want to tell you more. We only take 75,000 L.L.

for a couple in the house or for a house you can say, if a family came.

75,000 L.L. Yes nothing. It is very nominal. 10$.

20$ in fact. Only.

So. Wow. It is just nominal to support.

You're still not in Lebanon? You still didn't come to Lebanon?!

You can sleep here for 10$. Oh my God I don't have a passport.

There is a small kitchenette and toilet.

Of course more renovation will be done, we are the first to film it. The official opening is after 2 days.

I am feeling blessed and proud. Thank you so much. Thank you for the invitation.

So it is very normal to see that some changes should happen.

The guesthouse will be for if someone is not from the diasporas which have houses present here.

They can use the guesthouse. Any emigrant who comes gets a 15% discount

for the guesthouse. Even if he is not an emigrant, he can stay in the guesthouse.

But to tell you that they get a 15% discount. The money for the guesthouse is also very nominal

in order to rent a room in the guesthouse.

We are not encouraging you to have another passport but we are taking care of

Lebanese diasporas to come.

Hello hello.

Hi Marc. Welcome welcome.

I am Marc Ghawi. I am a consultant for diaspora village

and we made the coffeeshop concept.

A person cannot pass by the diaspora village without checking the museum.

The diaspora museum.

We converted the diaspora museum to a coffeeshop.

We said there is the restaurant cafe, and here is the bar.

We reached here.

Handmade, homemade, specially made Lebanese

sausages of all kinds, or salami, or pastrami, or whatever.

I decided to start making everything

which we usually import, and make it locally.

For this reason, we made a very big farm. It has pigs and cows.

We are taking their milk. We also have alpine goats and we taking their milk.

We are taking pig meat. These are gourmet items. Definitely.

Beautiful texture. Beautiful aromas.

Amazing flavor. Great afternote.

Very nice balance.