Salma Hayek made her first trip to her father’s ancestral homeland of Lebanon on Sunday.
Salma Hayek is in the country to attend the world premiere of The Prophet, an animated film she produced. The film is based on the book by famed Lebanese philosopher Gibran Khalil Gibran.
The Prophet is about “the courage to speak up, to believe you are worth being listened to,” according to Salma Hayek.
On Sunday, Salma Hayek met with Syrian refugee children living in the country. The visit was a promise kept after the 48-year-old actress announced last month that she and her billionaire husband, François-Henri-Pinault, would be donating funds to help build schools for refugees in Lebanon.
What is Salma Hayek doing in Lebanon? http://t.co/PjrlB95QxK pic.twitter.com/OjvRKrosSF
— Gulf News (@gulf_news) April 27, 2015
Director Roger Allers, who also directed Disney’s Beauty and the Beast and The Lion King, accompanied Salma Hayek on the trip.
“I have been living with the spirit of Gibran for the last three years and it has been a very intimate experience and now to come to his home is very moving,” Allers said.
Salma Hayek also visited the picturesque mountain village of Bcharre in northern Lebanon on Sunday to pay homage to Khalil Gibran.
“Let us have a private moment in this place that we dreamt so long to be a part of,” Hayek said before entering the Gibran Museum.
Salma Hayek, who is also half-Mexican, is scheduled to host a charity gala and auction at a Beirut restaurant to raise money for the Children’s Cancer Center of Lebanon.
