Serkan Eren founded an aid organization with which doing good should be cool. Seven years later, celebrities support him and he raises millions in donations. He knows what it’s like to be poor.
Interviewed by
Max Ferstl and Veronica Wulf
Serkan Eren, 38, was a fitness coach before founding the aid organization Stelp seven years ago. He was on Lesbos when refugees were stranded there, in Beirut after the warehouse exploded, in Afghanistan when the German armed forces withdrew, and in Ukraine shortly after the war broke out. Hundreds of volunteers are now working for Stelp, and in 2022 the NGO collected four million euros in donations. On a November afternoon, Eren is sitting in Café Natan in downtown Stuttgart. It’s his café, all proceeds go to the needy, the milk vending machine hisses.