Hussam Allaham was born in Syria and had to flee in the advent of the Syrian crisis. Christian Hirsig was born in Switzerland and sold his tech company when he was 34 years old. In 2016 Christian and his wife started Powercoders, a Swiss non-profit that teaches refugees how to code. That’s where Christian and Hussam met. 

Hussam was a graduate of the first class in 2017 and eventually joined Powercoders as a team member. During the last years, they both supported the Powercoders team to grow its impact to over 200 graduates, an internship placement rate of over 90%, and a job integration rate of over 60%.

In 2021 Hussam shared his dream of opening the doors to the European tech industry for tech talent from the MENA region. With the support of the Swiss government and several foundations, they have successfully launched Remotecoders in 2023 in Egypt.