About Us
The Founder
Long before the SARIAS Stiftung was officially established, its founder and Chairman of the Supervisory Board, “Adem Sari”, already had a clear idea of the vulnerable areas in which the SARIAS Stiftung should work in a charitable capacity and the social objective that it should pursue.
Born in Berlin, he is a German entrepreneur with Turkish ethnic roots. He himself grew up in various state-run child and youth welfare institutions during his childhood, including one of Berlin’s oldest children’s homes, the “Elisabethstift”, which was founded in 1826 and is currently typical of a foundation under civil law.
In this sense, the idea of a “Stiftung” (“foundation”) has a very personal meaning for him, which is also reflected in his gratitude for the state care he received during his childhood. Due to the things he has experienced during his own difficult life, it was particularly important for him to establish the SARIAS Stiftung here in Berlin – the heart of Germany.
Germany is the country in which he was born and raised, in which he completed his schooling and training, in which he is currently working successfully as an entrepreneur, and in short, the country with which he personally identifies.
“It feels the same.”
Non-profit, primarily for kids
Children are the foundation of our world. According to a well-known Indian proverb, “we have not inherited the earth from our ancestors, we have borrowed it from our children.” Children are the future of our society. Everything that we give to our children and everything that we invest in their development and education for peaceful coexistence in a culturally diverse society can and will always contribute to making our planet a better place to live in the future.
Therefore, the SARIAS Foundation dedicates the core area of its work to children especially. Our focus is on teaching children the importance of universal values such as love, respect, appreciation, and tolerance, and making these human values tangible for them in everyday life. Through the transmission of such elementary, universal values, children are able to learn from an early stage of their development that the things that connect people are always stronger than those that divide them.
If, through our support alone, we were to encourage even one child, over the course of his or her development, to become a person who shows a responsibility towards his or her fellow human beings when living and acting, then this one child already has the potential to positively influence the fates of millions of people in the future.
The SARIAS Stiftung would like to give children whatever support they need. To this end, we develop our own long-term social projects and supervise their implementation. Cooperation with other social institutions in the fields of education, training, and culture is therefore incorporated just as much as their sponsorship and support.
“It feels the same.”
Our Motto
Since his childhood, the founder of the SARIAS Stiftung has been in close contact with two cultures and religions – one from the Occident and one from the Orient. The foundation’s motto, “It feels the same”, was born of these experiences and sums up the objective of the SARIAS Stiftung – to create and promote a successful, enriching diversity of cultures in Germany, and in doing so, to take both our roots and our future into account: namely with regard to the children.
By “diversity of cultures” we do not only mean the mere existence of numerous ethnic groups in our society – this is the reality in Germany anyway. Rather, our intention is to establish a harmonious coexistence in our society, which is based on continuous, mutual exchange and open, reciprocal understanding, which ultimately results in the all-important interpersonal responsibility for one another.
Crucial for living together in peace, trust, and mutual appreciation are not origin, faith, or the language with which people express themselves, but the emotional world inherent in every human being by nature:
“It feels the same.”
It feels the same to all people to endure suffering, to feel pain and grief, to receive affection and respect, or to be devoted and faithful to others. These are fundamental values and life experiences that define people and ultimately connect them. Across all ethnic, religious, and linguistic divides, we would like to encourage people to engage in dialogue, to interact with one another, and to love their neighbour within our society in Germany.
The SARIAS Stiftung was established on 19 March 2016. Following the successful completion of the founding phase, it has been actively engaged in charitable work since 1 January 2019.
With its humanitarian orientation, the SARIAS Stiftung is generally available to all people who need help, and feels responsible for these people. In this way, the SARIAS Stiftung as a non-profit organisation also contributes to the preservation of human dignity.
And so we shall conclude with the guiding principle of human rights that is appropriate to this cause, which is enshrined in our German constitution: “Human dignity shall be inviolable.” Art. 1 Para. 1 Sentence 1 GG (Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany)
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