Villa Karo
This centre was built as the Fenno-African culture centre where you can experience the ethnic history of the area. In 1998 Finnish author Juha Vakkuri was sent to Benin to scout a suitable location for a Finnish-African cultural centre in Grand-Popo and in 1999 Les Amis de la Villa Karo registered as NGO in Finland with a task is to administer the future cultural centre.
The Main Building of Villa Karo was inaugurated in the millennium by The Government of Benin represented by Mr Eric F Totah; Grand-Popo represented by Mr Alain Bogler, Les Amis de la Villa Karo represented by Chairman Juha Vakkuri. Walk around this centre and see the difference that it has made to employment, international relations and travel in Benin. Villa Karo has published seven revised and expanded editions of its guide-book of Benin and there are 11 different artists' organisations and 5 arts universities interested to work and study in Benin. The country also enticed in about 650 cultural personalities from Finland in the period of five years to the country is rapidly gaining popularity.
Research African history in the library of Villa Karo where there are over 1000 books about Africa in Finnish, Swedish, English and French to choose from. If reading is too challenging for a holiday, visit Villa Karo to watch a movie as over 300 films have been shown free of charge since it opened its doors to the public and 40 concerts have been hosted. Villa Karo has made a financial injection of more than 500 million CFA to the economy during its existence as it will keep drawing tourists and international interest.
