Imtiaz Sooliman – Gift of the Givers commemorates 27 years of humanitarian aid.
AI: Summary ©
The hosts of a news program discuss the success of the disaster intervention program and emphasize the importance of giving aid. They also discuss the challenges faced by South African disaster zones, including people not being sure of their abilities and the bureaucracy of the government. The speakers stress the importance of showing actual faith in oneself and avoiding false assumptions. They also discuss the challenges of helping people in non-war zone disaster zones and stress the importance of showing faith in oneself and avoiding false assumptions.
AI: Summary ©
Peter, thank you so much. A disaster relief organization, a
gift of the givers, is celebrating a 27 years of humanitarian aid
since it's it was founded in August the sixth of 1992 the
humanitarian organization has grown to supply aid to millions of
people worldwide. The disaster intervention, including the
establishment of search and rescue, aquatic and medical teams,
and of course, 20 other categories of projects have permitted this
NGO to deliver 2.8 billion rand in aid to 43 countries South Africa.
Included the scale of gift of the givers. Projects have grown but to
take us through the journey it's been we have with us. Dr, Imtiaz
Suleiman is the founder of the gift of the givers, and he joins
us now live from our studios in Durban. Doc, good afternoon to
you. Thank you so much for coming through. It's certainly been quite
a significant journey of touching people's lives. How did this NGO
come about?
Good evening, Palace. I end to Peter, good afternoon. Rather,
it's been a beautiful story. I was in Istanbul. We visited Istanbul,
and in the process, we met a Sufi teacher, a spiritual master. The
first visit was in August 91 I went back in August 92 as we
mentioned the sixth. It was the sixth of August. It was a Thursday
night. After a prayer session, the spiritual master just looked me in
the eye and said, in FLUENT Turkish, my son, I'm not asking
you, I'm instructing you to form an organization. The name will be
gift of the givers. You will serve all people of all races, of all
religions, of all colors, of all classes, of all cultures, of any
geographical location and of any political affiliation, but you
will serve them unconditionally. You will expect nothing in return,
not even a thank you. This is an instruction for you for the rest
of your life, and remember that whatever you do is done through
you and not by you. And that's how it started, and that's that's what
gift of the givers has done over the years. And you've been the
phase, really. And the force behind this NGO has humanitarian
aid always been something, perhaps, close to your heart,
besides this instruction from the old men,
well, I know it. I won't say humanitarian aid. What in the
religion itself? You know, Islamic law. It encourages you. It
encourages you to help people, your neighbor, friends, community,
family, it encourages you to do that. And your great grandparents,
your parents, your family, are a loving example to that. So you do
your own kind of service as an individual in a small way. My
parents in a shop, my father and his grand and his father, my
grandfather. When people came and bought from them and couldn't
afford, they would waive the account and say, It's fine, you
don't have to pay. And then people will come back and say, but we
don't have money for funeral. And they would give them money for
funeral, and they were they know they won't get paid. So that was a
small type of charity that you learned and it is imbibed in all
of us, and we imbibe it in our children, and they do to the
grandchildren. So an individual capacity, yes, we learn about
giving, but the scale to which this is gone is totally different,
yeah, indeed, of course. And we call it the spirit of Ubuntu here
in South Africa. Doc, I said on my introduction that this NGO has
been able to deliver 2.8 billion rand in 80 to 43 countries. South
Africa included, of course, and mainly you depend on donors.
Yes, it's all donors. The best part is we don't look for money
now. We don't have to go out cap in hand. We don't have to go door
to door. We don't have to make calls to corporates or anyone.
People just come to us the moment a disaster happens, even before we
say we're going to intervene, we start getting calls. What do you
need? Can you take something from us? Can we deliver this to you? It
happens over and over again. Schools want to collect pensions.
Want to collect all age. Homes want to collect from the
corporates. People will call ordinary people will call
professionals call. Everybody wants to give some kind of hand,
to some extent, for a disaster, which is, of course, carried much
more in the news, things that are not carried in the news, like
winter warm, food parcels, feeding scheme, counseling services. Of
course, we get ongoing donations, which we can then use for those
projects. As you mentioned in the introduction, we have the
disasters, plus 20 other categories of work that we do. Ja,
and of course, I think this speaks to the generosity of South
Africans, the Africans and the people worldwide to talk now the
challenges really, surely. It wasn't an easy sailing. You came
across some challenges. Let's just talk about the challenges that you
come across when trying to help and assist where possible. Well,
one of the biggest challenges is that wherever you go, especially
if it's a war zone, there's doubt.
There's suspicion people don't know you. There's matters of
trust. You know, even, even it's not a war zone, it was a disaster.
Don't How reliable are you? The government, the people on the
ground? Let's start about the war zone. If you go and help the
different Ward infections, want to know which side you belong to, if
you seem to be taking the side of one side, you're the enemy to the
other side, and you seem to be happy the other side, you the
enemy to the first side. So you could be an enemy to everyone.
That's the danger for you in a war zone. And you have to make there's
a way to negotiate that, to show that you are impartial. When you
go in a non war zone, in an earthquake for a for example, when
you go there people, the bureaucracy, doesn't know how
reliable you are, and it's fair to them. People come to take chances.
We've seen people take chances with the lives of people affected
in disaster zones. So obviously, there's a lot of red tape
bureaucracy. Can you be trusted who you are, and all those kind of
things is that is a challenge. But fortunately for us as South
Africans, because we have diplomatic support from
government, and because they see the credibility of our teams at
work. We give them 24 to 48 hours. We tell them, put our teams to the
test. Watch them, stand with them and be with them. And the moment
they do that for the 1448 hours, in many cases, they tell us, go
anywhere in the country, take any hospital, bring any team you want,
do what you want. The other challenge is there's always more
need that you can afford or offer in the amount of time that you
come I can in an earthquake, there's no way you can cover the
entire terrain. So you have to be realistic, program your mind and
say, I'm only going to help the people in yazmartz Avenue. I can't
do anything in Empire road. It's not possible. So you choose one
destination, stay on a destination, and do the best you
can and hope that other teams from other parts of the world will come
and do what they can do in another area. So what are your plans going
forward? As it is now, a gift of the givers is the largest disaster
relief organization of African origin. This, of course, on the
continent. So what are your plans going forward? How are you looking
to grow bigger? How are you looking to expand on the aid that
you provide?
Well, police are this is strange. We never had a plan in 27 years,
and we don't have a plan for the next 27 years either. Because,
since this is a spiritual organization. When the spiritual
teacher gave the instruction, asked him, after he gave me the
instruction, I said, Now What? What do I do? What is this all
about? I'm a doctor in private practice. Is this something that I
do all the time? Do I do it in between I practice? What do I do?
He said, My son, in everything you will know, believe me, in 27
years, I do know how I know that. I don't know, but I know what to
do, how to do, when to do all those kind of things, and for 27
years, I've just waited for the things to come in front of me,
took all of them and ran with them. I don't know what's going to
come tomorrow or in the next 10 years, but I know I'll be shown
what to do and how to do it. I'll just continue the same formula
that I've used for the last 27 years. Wow. Quite an incredible
story there. Doctor suluman, thank you so much for sharing that story
with us. And most importantly, we wish you everything of the best
going forward as you continue to extend your helping hand to the
Africans in general, and the people around the world. Many
thanks for your time.
Thank you very much.