Imtiaz Sooliman – awarded the prestigious Global Citizen Award
AI: Summary ©
A representative from a foundation called for people to give money to 42 countries affected by natural disasters, including those in the Middle East. They have raised over 2 billion dollars in aid for 42 countries and won several awards, including a disaster management campaign and a housing village in Egypt. The organization emphasizes serving all people and their unique experiences in helping others, including a former President who was involved in a tornado in enerdale and a former President who was feeding people daily in Alex and was involved in a tornado in enerdale.
AI: Summary ©
The gift of the givers. Foundation has raised more than 2 billion
rands in life saving aid for 42 countries around the world,
including war ravaged states such as Syria, Libya, Sudan, Somalia
and Bosnia, just to name a few. Recently, its founder and
humanitarian, Dr Imtiaz Suleiman, was awarded the prestigious Global
Citizen Award by the International citizenship advisory firm Henley
and partners. The award is given each year to an inspirational
individual who has made an extraordinary contribution towards
improving the global global community. Dr MTR Suleiman joins
us in studio now to tell us a little bit more about this award
and his work. Congratulations. Thank you. Thank you very much. I
couldn't think of a more,
a better person and a better recipient of this award. How did
you find out that you were going to be getting it? Oh, I didn't
know about this award. I just offered my email Randy. I was
about to go to Turkey, and suddenly I get this email to say
you have won the global citizen award the company is handling and
partners. Can you please be in London on the 11th of November to
fetch it? Oh my gosh. I'm thinking what this is all about. Nobody's
called me. Nobody's asked me. Normally, when there's an award,
people phone you. They say we're nominating you, that kind of
stuff. So I contacted the company and said, Can you please explain a
little more? So they said, Look, we have offices in 25 countries in
the world, but we have clients in more than 100 countries in the
world. We're going for 20 years. About 10 years ago, we started the
global conference. Three years ago, we partnered UNHCR. We are
very interested in refugees. An international panel of judges was
set up. Nominations came from all over the world. There are three
rounds of voting. In all three rounds, you won in the voting, and
that's how you won the award. Can you believe
it? We could have, like, just, you could have sort of deleted it and
thought, oh, it's one of those junk emails where it's just told
me that I've won, you know, 150,000
million pounds.
Well, at least this one was true. This one was true when you got
there and they handed the award over to you. What was it that
they, that they they said to you, why was it they felt that your
organization deserved this award, or was was the beneficiary this
time? I think there were several reasons. I think, first of all,
they were stunned that this kind of work could be done from Africa.
You know, because when whoever was there were all northern country
people, you know, in the clients, but you could see these were very
passionate people. And with UNHCR, Deputy High Commissioner was also
there, because they parted the UN for certain projects. And even
their lifetime ambassador, Barbara Hendricks was also there. And they
had another ambassadors. David somedis is acting in some British
movie. He was also there. And the people, you could see were very
sensitive and soft towards especially the plight of refugees.
The inset that they showed were about refugees. And then they
spoke about our involvement with refugees, our involvement in
Syria, in Somalia and other parts of the world. And they found us
very unique, because we're not only in disaster, yeah, we do 20
other different types of projects, and coming from Africa with such
skilled people, they were just amazed. Immediately after the
function, they said, we like to partner you, and even just say an
email came people from Dubai, from the office, are not talking. How
can they support us? Yeah, what I love about your organization is
that you don't you know. You never forget where you come from, and
you're always ready and willing to help. I know that, just before you
left to go to London to receive this award, you offered your help
and your assistance for those here in Johannesburg that had lost
their homes and their lives to the floods that that that ravaged us
last week. What came with this? Did you offer assistance
Johannesburg? Yeah, yes. We were the we were the first people that,
in the morning, actually post my flight. Because of that, you
postponed your flight. I don't know about this. I was supposed to
be there on Thursday, and I landed up going on Friday. Amazing. So it
was half past four in the morning. My team's already in Alex, the
lady to childcare family who lost the child, we actually took them
into our own housing village. We have a housing village in Alex,
not far from the river, which we established three years ago. She's
now living in our housing village. The disaster management called us.
Provincial Government came there, the chair, the the premier came
there. Former shooting they were there. The President was with us
yesterday, yeah, and you know, we're feeding two and a half 1000
people daily in Alex we're involved in ikuruleni. We're
involved in jemiston, and yesterday we also got involved in
a tornado in enerdale. Amazing. You know, when people hear about
the organization the gift of the givers, and I know we've spoken
about it, your memoir, we had a wonderful interview about how it
all began, but a lot of people still don't know how gift of the
givers began, and it is the most beautiful story. If you don't
mind, just give us that story again. Nobody gets tired of that
story. It is stunning. August, 1992 you know, actually, it was a
year before I met a spiritual teacher in Istanbul. The following
year I went back. It was a Thursday night, sixth August, 1992
after a prayer session. And in this place there's people of all
religions, all colors, Jews, Christians, Hindus, Muslims,
people who say we don't believe in God. Everybody's welcome.
Everybody is treated equally and with respect, and nobody's
judgmental. And after that prayer session, the teacher just looks me
in the eye and tells.
In fluent Turkish, and I don't understand Turkish, and I
understood everything he said. He said, My son, I'm not asking you,
I'm instructing you to form an organization. The name in Arabic
will be work for waqifen, translated means gift of the
givers. You will serve all people of all races, of all religions, of
all colors, of all cultures, of all classes, of any geographical
location and of any political affiliation, but you will serve
them unconditionally. You will not expect anything in return, not
even a thank you. This is an instruction for you for the rest
of your life, serve people with love, mercy, kindness, kindness
and compassion, and remember the dignity of men is foremost. And
remember the most important point of all, whatever you do is done
through you and not by you. Unbelievable. It's a spiritual
calling. And since then, you have helped 42 different countries in
different circumstances, whether they be ravaged by war, whether it
be through floods, through natural disasters, or whatever it may be,
what are the kind of thank yous you have gotten? Because there's
no doubt, I know you shouldn't expect thank yous, but what is the
appreciation that people show for the work that gift of the givers
does? The most powerful thank you is the eyes of those who receive
something when you go on the ground and when the face and eyes
talk to you, and the words don't talk to you, when you see the look
on the person's face, a mother or a child or an old man when they
look at you and you can see the eyes are touching Heaven and the
soul is touching heaven that thank you is priceless. You know, you
don't look for it, but you know, because it's not about you.
Remember, there's teams that come with you, people who risk their
lives are going to a war zone, who leave their wives and their
children behind, who leave their luxuries, who leave their cars,
their homes, their practices. It's teams. It's not me. It's the teams
of South Africa that make these things happen. It's South African
people and the support of the country and the government and the
media and the corporates and everybody else, and those who pray
and the religious groups we're representing, all of them. And
when we go there and they give you that look when you open the door
and there's no mattress, no cupboard, no food, no breast milk,
even to give milk, and then they give it a look. So thank you. I
mean, that's priceless. That's, that's more than words can say,
um, gift of the givers. It is all about the generosity of people.
And if people would like to donate, it's, it's there on the
website, anything assistance, in terms of food, blankets, medical
assistance, whatever you can that's, that's how you work? Yes,
it's there. Oh, 807 86 triple seven. Fantastic. Or www, dot gift
of the givers.org. Fantastic. MTS, Suleiman, always a pleasure having
you here. Thank you so much for coming and sharing your love with
us. And congratulations again. Just to read what was said when Dr
Suleiman accepted this award,
the organizations of the award ceremony say for his extraordinary
courage and commitment saying the work of his foundation has had a
significant impact on the lives of the most vulnerable in the world,
I believe these are the most important reasons our award
committee has given this year's award to Dr Imtiaz Suleiman,
congratulations. All right, let's take a break. We'll see you after
the Stay tuned. Applause. Stay tuned.
You.