The September 11 attacks were very traumatic for Bruder , as his eldest daughter was working near the World Trade Center and the event drove Bruder to " make a real impact " in something other than real estate . Working with experts and business owners in the Middle East and North Africa , Bruder investigated entrepreneurial responses to overcoming two key challenges in the Middle East and North Africa : the world 's large youth bulge and the highest youth unemployment in the world . He believes that stable societies can only be built if youth have economic opportunity and jobs . After hiring the Brookings Institution to research methods of ameliorating the situation , along with traveling for several months in Middle Eastern countries , Bruder decided to create Education For Employment ( EFE ) . His stated reason for doing so was , The creation of the foundation cost $ 10 million , which Bruder self-funded . Since its establishment in 2002 , EFE has grown to become a network of locally-run and staffed affiliate organizations located across the Middle East and North Africa and supported by capacity building nonprofits in the United States and Europe . In order to expand within each of the network 's countries of operation , Bruder partnered with " local companies that provide funding and agree to hire a set number of graduates from his training programs " . The first Middle Eastern affiliate , JCEF , was founded in Jordan in 2005 and the second , Palestine EFE , in the Gaza Strip in 2006 . They were followed by the creation of Yemen EFE , EFE-Morocco , EFE-Egypt and , most recently , EFE-Tunisia
September 11 attacks
September 11 attacks
Ron Bruder