As we watched in shock as the man, his entire body exhibiting extreme tremors, reacted with shock, my father said to Baran and me, “The man is dying right now. If you don’t want to look, turn your heads away.” Neither of us turned our heads and continued to watch the scene unfold. After about five seconds of shaking, the homeless man suddenly went still. When my father saw that he hadn’t moved, he said, “Unfortunately, the man is gone.” He tried to explain the gravity of the situation to us.

While all this was happening, a woman jumped out of the car that had hit the man, in great panic. She was screaming at the top of her lungs, “Help me, let’s get him to the hospital!” Of course, everything happened in an instant, and in a matter of five seconds, the man lost his life right before our eyes.

This incident deeply affected me. All day long, as I walked along the streets, I kept thinking, “Who knows what happened to this poor man that made him become homeless? Then, who hit him, and he was so unfortunate that he was hit by a car and died!”

That very day, I made a promise to myself: If I ever have the opportunity in the future, I will help those in need as much as I can. In fact, if possible, I will establish a system to make this sustainable. I kept the promise I made to myself that day, joining forces with other food companies while I was CEO of KFC and Pizza Hut Turkey, and founded TİDER (Basic Needs Association), which brought the food banking system that has helped millions of people to Turkey. To understand the multifaceted, integrated model at TİDER, you can read my blog post at https://serhansuzer.com/en/understanding-tider-basic-needs-association/.

After founding TİDER, I continued my civil society work, both through TİDER and through other means, to the best of my ability, in areas of need. I am categorizing and sharing all the work I have accomplished in the civil society sector so far. You can read my articles about our civil society work and aid below: