The idea was born in October of 2019, when nationwide protests broke out in Lebanon in the context of a crippling economic and political crisis, resulting in soaring unemployment and dramatic increases in poverty rates. Lebanese across the world rallied to help their fellow countrymen, directing money towards local NGO’s and private initiatives that are known mostly through word of mouth or social media.  

However, we realized that donors (ourselves included) quickly faced issues, namely: inefficient access to information, difficulty of choice and lack of trust in either the method of payment or the recipients. On the other end of the spectrum, we saw that local NGO’s also faced issues such as lack of access to a reliable donor masse, itself inherently fragmented. We concluded that Diaspora funding, despite being needed, is inherently inefficient.  

This is where the idea of Xpatria was born, out of a group of concerned expatriates in Geneva, who decided to form an association whose aim is to provide a secure, trusted medium for Diaspora groups to create a positive impact in their home countries. The basic idea is to provide security, transparency, and reliability to donors, and provide donor access and visibility to receivers.