Zgharta - Ehden Introduction Ehden and Zgharta are two prominent Lebanese cities located in North Lebanon. The same people who own houses and properties in both cities inhabit them both. Ehden is populated mainly during summer, while Zgharta is the residence during winter. Ehden is an older mountainous town with 1450-metre elevation from sea level. It is the original town of Ehdenians. Zgharta is a relatively newer city, which was inhabited by Ehdenians in 1519 for the purpose of spending winter periods, with 150-meters elevation from sea level.Zgharta is the constituency for al-Zawiya, which includes coastal and mountainous areas, but do not stretch to the sea. As a result of that fact, a close relation was developed by both coastal and mountainous residence due to constant seasonal travelling by residence of the mountain toward the coast in order to escape the harsh icy winter. That trend became a way of life where most Ehdenians are spending winter periods on the coast. A small minority of Ehdenians who were 60 years and over preferred to spend all seasons in their mountain homes. Some tourists, shop owners and restaurateurs also spent their weekends in the mountains. The area is enriched with water resources in the shape of streams running from the top of the mountains. This supply of water is used for drinking and farming. Some of the main streams are: Mar Sarkis, Joueat, al-Kaddi, and Rashaean. Zgharta is the centre for its constituency featuring a number of public and private schools, colleges, pre-schools, hospitals, surgeries, water and electricity supplies and telecommunications. Most of these facilities are located in Zgharta and Ehden, particularly, health and official administration quarters. The Zgharta- al- Zawiya constituency includes 52 villages with a 100,000 population consisting mostly of Maronite- Christians with the exemption of Karabash whose inhabitants are a rare Roman-Orthodox. Miryatah and Ial whose people are Muslims and Hillan and Harat al-Fawar, which are of mixed Christians and Muslims religions. Zgharta- al- Zawiya is an area of 185 sq km and is located among four other constituencies: al-Koura, Becharri, al-Danieh- al-Miniah and Tripoli. Zgharta- al- Zawiya have experienced a vast migration toward South and Central America, and recently toward Australia. That migration had included up to 40% of residents according to reliable surveys. Some residents had also moved to other locations within Lebanon like Beirut, its suburbs and other coastal towns.

Welcome to the web site of the Zgharta-Ehden community in Australia, proudly represented by the Association of Zgharta (Youssef Bey Karam Batal Lebnan). The main objectives of this site is to provide information about Zgharta-Ehden to all people, especially our youth, of the rich and deep history and culture of the people of Zgharta-Ehden, both here in Australia and in Lebanon, our homeland. We would also like to provide a window to all other Zgharta-Ehden web sites and communities worldwide in order to bring our entire community closer together.

The Association of Zgharta (Youssef Bey Karam Batal Lebnan) had an election on the 28th of June 2009 at the Zgharta House in Guildford. A new committee has been formed to work on achieving the goals of the association and to deal directly with the Zgharta Community in Sydney.

COMMITTEE MEMBERS 2009-2010

President: Antoine Gittany

Vice President: Sayed Elachi

Secretary: Stephany Finianos

Treasurer: Badwi Ndaira

Asst. Secretary: Marcel Al-Chalouhi

Asst. Treasurer: Sayed Halabi

Legal Advisor: Raymond Mawad

Ladies Relations: Alia Halabi

Media Relations/Activities Organizer: Raymond Makdisi

Public Realtions/Adviser: Badwi El-Bacha

Youth Relations: Anthony Makari

Soccer Relations: Joseph Geaitani

Guest Financial Adviser: Nicolas Karam

IT Officer: Jessica Gittany

House Caretaker: Tannous Finianos

Chairman: George Douaihy

لجنة ادارية جدية للعام 2009-2010