Imtiaz Sooliman – Cape Town fires Gift of the Givers to provide three meals a day for fire victims

Gift of the giver says it has been

requested to provide 3 meals per day for

the next 7 days to fire victims. The

gift of the givers teams are expected to

visit all accommodation

sites this morning to get more about,

the ADA and response. We're joined via Zoom

by doctor Inder Suliman for gift of the

givers. A very good morning to you, doctor

Suliman. Take us through what is your task

in providing assistance

to the people that were affected in this

incident?

Good morning, Desiree. Yes. Yesterday afternoon, by 4

o'clock, we had in the day, we offered

UCT assistance, and we're waiting for them to

get feedback. Initially, the fire was not so

big. But, eventually, when the building started burning

and they started evacuating their residence, they call

us and said, look. We may need help

with feeding tonight. We cannot show it's 1000,

2000, and, eventually, at half 4, 430, they

said 4000.

And they said, could you do this for

the rest of the week? We're not disaster

specialists. We are a university. Can you assist?

We, of course, said yes, and we got

the cooks ready last night. To cut a

long story short, we the 2 meals are

provided for 4,000 students.

Our team spent through the night building to

building hotel to hotel. And at that point,

some of the students were still coming in

because it was a difficult job to find

accommodation for 4,000 students at such short notice.

So as we were being in the museum,

the students were extremely grateful, but they're also

traumatized.

And they said, look. The other thing we

require is soap, toothpaste, and toothbrush, which we're

busy, but this morning.

You mentioned in the introduction visiting our hotels.

We're gonna send our team to each of

those hotels where the students are to see

what the general requirements are. Besides food and

and and and the drinks, we're also looking

at putting up tea stations because since they're

traumatized, it'll be a very calming effect. We

have tea, coffee, biscuits available for them. Yeah.

Also, the deter I mean, the personal hygiene

items.

And in addition to that, last night at

20 to 1 well, this morning at 28

to 1 of them, when we went towards

the mountain,

we met some of the fire fighters, and

we asked them, do you need anything? They

said, look. We haven't eaten since the time

this morning. So we gave them meal packs,

and as part of our program, we will

now provide food for the firefighters also.

You're talking about the firefighters, but just in

terms of the students and maybe the broader

community, who's eligible to get assistance, and how

will you reach these victims?

Well, they're all in hotels, so it's very

easy. We know we're working directly with the

university council. They're with us this morning. We

are on meetings with them all the time.

So we have the list of all the

buildings, and it's only students in those buildings

or nobody else. It's all hotels that have

opened up for the students and some residences.

So we have the list exactly where to

go, and we'd be our teams personally deliver

the items to those to to those facilities.

How are you working with disaster management teams

and the government as well just in terms

of getting a sense of the movement of

the fire?

Well, our our task at the disaster management

aim is to control the fire. You know?

We assist in by

providing

snack packs for the firefighters, which we'll be

doing from this morning. And, you know, it's

it's and and especially with Cape Town, we

have a very, very good relationship with disaster

management. We talk to each other all the

time. So, in fact, they already contacted us.

The heads have contacted us. The city has

contacted us. So we provide support for the

for the firefighters, which will, besides this morning,

will be starting to bring for the rest

of the day. And our job and then,

of course, the other responsibility, which is not

theirs, is the responsibility of the university

to take care of its own students.

And university has done it very, very well

by finding accommodation, and we are now the

backup support to the university university for providing

food and, water and any other requirements that

the students may may need in this period.

It may be 7 days. It may be

longer. Your your report must have told you

the fire is really getting more rough in

Cape Town, and it's possible that more buildings

may need to be evacuated.

And thank you very much for speaking to

us this morning. As always, to the rescue,

was the gift of the givers, doctor

Ibtis Suliman,

taking us through the response aid being given

to fire victims in Cape Town. We'll continue

to monitor developments there. For more information on

how to donate, you can go to donations

at giftofthegivers.org

or you can call the intervention call,

toll free line on 0800786911.

Let me, tell you that number again. 0800786911.