Keefak?

Languages open doors and Keefak’s aim is solidly anchored in every Lebanese’s DNA, bringing Lebanese abroad a step closer to their home country and more broadly building bridges between cultures. 

Two USJ Alumni, Hadi (ESIB, 2000) and Joseph (INCI, 2010) El Khoury developed Keefak as a solution to a desire felt by Lebanese abroad to preserve and transmit our dialect to our children and companions. Hadi had the idea when his first daughter was born in 2009. The project was then brought to life in 2012 thanks to his brother Joseph El Khoury and an awesome benevolent crew mainly composed of: Pascale Aoudé, Tony Asmar, Antoine Fleyfel and Rawad Rahmé who spent countless hours and days on the project; without forgetting all those who helped and assisted here and there, in one way or another, along the road.

Keefak allows for French, English, Spanish and Brazilian Portuguese translation into Lebanese and it works through phonetic transliteration with no need to know the Arabic script. For example, the word Keefak? is the translation of ‘How are you?’ and is written in Latin letters.

The hundreds of testimonials we’ve been getting from our users tell an ever growing story of a solid bridge being built between Lebanon and its diaspora around the world: “My grandfather came from Lebanon to Brazil and I’m rescuing my roots by learning Arabic”, “Mes séjours réguliers à Beyrouth seront encore mieux grâce à vous”,  “Une super appli pour que les enfants n’ayant pas grandi au Liban comprennent la langue maternelle de leur maman ou papa”, and many more.

Along the way, Hadi and Joseph discovered that Keefak has also been used as a ‘language passport’ by foreign expats working in the Middle East. Many American, European and South Asian testimonials showed how much Keefak helped them integrate and enhance their career advancement in the GCC countries. In fact, Lebanese is a dialect largely understood in the Arab world.

The two brothers were approached to derive a Keefak version for migrant domestic workers in Lebanon. By bridging the language barrier, they believe that the employer-employee relationship gets healthier.

Keefak, which now counts more than 150 000 downloads worldwide, is totally free and shall remain free of charge on all platforms, namely the Apple App Store and the Google Play Store.

If you’re a Lebanon lover, if you share our aim to bring the Lebanese diaspora closer to the homeland, if you want to preserve and transmit the Levantine dialect to the upcoming generation, if you simply want to put “Lebanity” in one single app, please share the word and become a Keefak Ambassador.