AGAINST THE BORDER
ZeFi
A free Arabic-first blockchain education platform built for fragile and post-conflict regions.
- Focus
- Syria and MENA
- Team
- 43+ staff and volunteers
- Status
- Active, open source
WE BUILD LIKEWAS NEVERREQUIRED.
Open-source infrastructure for Syria and the world.
The four tools
AGAINST THE GATEKEEPER
Nawafith
Syria through two windows: live monitoring of Syrian and international media in Arabic and English, and the Official Gazette as open, searchable records.
- Decrees and decisions
- 11,432
- Companies
- 5,874
AGAINST THE CAGE
Zendetta
An interactive WebGL documentary of survival and revolution, in seven languages, with a fund for 100 Syrian students.
- Recognition
- 15+ international prizes
- Languages
- 7
- Impact
- 53 grants awarded
AGAINST SILENCE
Nafas
A framework for writers who use AI but don't want to sound like it. Captures real voice; rejects flattened English.
- Method
- The Damascene Star
- Kill list
- 100+ AI vocabulary words
A payment rail is a border.An AI model is a gatekeeper.A closed database is a cage.Knowledge is power.Infrastructure is sovereignty.
Press
- Inside the Tech Systems That Kept Syria Running Under the Assad Regime · WIRED2026 (opens in a new tab)
- Beyond Borders: Unveiling Potential of Blockchain in a Crisis · Ethereum.org2023 (opens in a new tab)
- Blockchain for Impact Workshop · Harvard Belfer Center2023 (opens in a new tab)
- Syrian refugee turned civil activist found calling as blockchain evangelist · Cointelegraph2022 (opens in a new tab)
- A Syrian democracy activist overcomes detentions, barriers in path to Yale · Yale News2022 (opens in a new tab)
- Syrian Students at Bard College Berlin: A Humanistic Imperative · Bard College Berlin2018 (opens in a new tab)
About
ZeFi Foundation builds open-source infrastructure for places where systems were designed to fail. Founder Karam Alhamad is a former political prisoner from Deir ez-Zor, Syria.
press@zefi.comfunding@zefi.com