US-based Masad Foundation seeks volunteers to develop online educational alternatives for the MENA region and beyond
by Piyush Mathur
Widespread violence and large-scale destruction across the Middle East and North African (MENA) region have prompted a public call for volunteers to work on an end-to-end AI-powered online educational system for affected peoples. The call was issued on LinkedIn on October 25, 2026, by Maram Husein, Executive Director of the San Francisco-based Masad Foundation.
Established by Amjad Masad—a Jordanian-American co-founder of Replit—the Foundation bears the Employer Identification Number (EIN) 93-2968372. According to the available records, the Foundation was formed in Delaware and registered with the California Secretary of State on April 3, 2024. The Foundation does not yet have a website of its own; in the near term, it is likely to operate out of Replit’s premises.
Husein’s post outlines an initiative aimed at revitalising educational access and delivery in the aftermath of conflict. The initiative seeks to address not only the loss of educational resources but also the destruction of educational infrastructure in war-torn areas of the world, apparently starting out with the MENA region.
This is a screenshot of a LinkedIn post made on October 25, 2026.
The post was made by Maram Husein, the Masad Foundation's Executive Director.
(Screenshot credit: Thoughtfox)
Husein notes that the Foundation hopes to develop an AI-powered ‘comprehensive solution that spans all groups’ while being accessible in environments where internet connectivity and high-quality devices are scarce or entirely unavailable. This solution envisions incorporating ‘diagnostic tools’, ‘personalised learning pathways’ tailored to students’ needs, and products to support educators.
The Foundation has yet to settle on a specific technical architecture and is inviting volunteers—presumably software engineers, instructional technologists, and pedagogues—to help shape the initiative. Husein’s post is not too definitive about what sorts of volunteers she is seeking; however, it is clear that people from the software and AI sectors will be in high demand for this initiative’s near future.
Hussein promises a collaborative and creative working environment, with arrangements ranging from remote, asynchronous contributions to ‘a multi-week buildathon’ hosted at Replit’s headquarters.
Those interested in contributing can contact the Foundation at the following address:
There have been several public calls during the past few years for volunteer teachers, both online and onsite, for the violence-afflicted peoples of the MENA region. A call was made last year, for example, by the UK-based Mothers of Hind for volunteer medical lectures who could work in Gaza, Palestine. The Bethlehem-based Noor Community had sought volunteer online teachers of English in August. The Spain-based Teachers for Peace has an ongoing programme dedicated to volunteer online teachers (especially of English) from conflict zones. There have been, and continue to be, several other similar initiatives.
The Masad Foundation’s initiative, however, aspires to cover the whole range of education—presumably from the elementary to the college level, and across the disciplines—via an AI-powered system. The initiative may overlap a little bit with another US-based, pre-AI-era institution, University of the People—which can barely be claimed to have lived up to any expectations, never mind its self-promotion.
