It’s been a tumultuous 20 years since real estate developer Ron Bruder launched Education For Employment (EFE) to bring job training programs to the Middle East and North Africa. Several of the organization’s priority geographies—notably Egypt, Tunisia, Lebanon, Yemen, and Gaza—have endured civil wars, uprisings, regime changes, and devastating attacks.

Yet Bruder, 78, has built a sprawling, remarkably flexible nonprofit. In May 2025, for example, EFE-Palestine added a 20-hour program to train physical therapists in response to the tremendous need created by post-Oct. 7 devastation. “We’re doing emergency medicine; we’re doing midwife training. We’re not training any tour guides anymore.” Despite the challenges of becoming operational in Yemen, Bruder says it has been one of EFE’s more successful programs, with more than 9,000 young people connected to jobs in sectors ranging from construction to finance, while EFE-Morocco has helped nearly 85,000 youth find opportunities.

Brooklyn-born Bruder started EFE in 2002 in response to the Sept. 11 terror attacks in hopes that providing young people with job skills and entrepreneurial education could prevent their radicalization. Thus far, through partnerships with local governments and companies seeking qualified workers, EFE’s affiliates have graduated more than 200,000 people, 59% of whom are women. Programs run the gamut from information technology to hospitality, depending on the needs of the locality, in 11 countries.

Over the years, Bruder has spent more than $20 million of his own funds on EFE—and spent countless hours defending the decision to focus his philanthropy abroad rather than in the U.S. “The Middle East is an area that has tremendous potential to be a good partner—or potentially to be a not-so-good partner,” he says. “If people don't have jobs, there's a much higher propensity to do anti-social things.”