Imtiaz Sooliman – Gift of the Givers engage government over COVID19 relief

Imtiaz Sooliman
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AI: Summary ©

The speakers discuss their efforts to improve the environment and feed for schools during COVID-19, including pumping water and drilling more holes. They also mention their partnership with base and their plans to use the water in schools to make food available to children during non COVID-19 times.

AI: Summary ©

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			Nine, and we just drilled another
three to make it 12, a place
		
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			called Club Park, club plot, not
far from craft unit, and no water
		
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			at all. The water shut down. We
virtually have saved that town a
		
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			few weeks ago by pumping out 2
million liters of water a day. And
		
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			they, I must say, it's a fantastic
cooperation between base, New Year
		
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			municipality and ourselves, where
we pumping water into the
		
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			municipality system, which is
going around to the rest of the
		
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			town. It's excellent yesterday,
and I mean, on Friday, we were in
		
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			petty there, again with the
municipality. Called us. They had
		
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			drilled 32 balls, or they had
given a contract, 32 balls were
		
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			drilled and not a drop of water
was found. We went in on Monday,
		
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			we've drilled four balls, all
successful, and existing balls are
		
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			from 1974 that were disused. We're
starting to open them up so people
		
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			can have water, and we delivered
1000 food parcels in Adelaide.
		
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			Again. We drilled eight more holes
last year, but because of the
		
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			electricity problems and the water
is running out in a town, we
		
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			drilled another four, and we
drilling two more this week. So we
		
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			involved this requirement in Fort,
Beaufort in Ellis, in amtata in
		
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			Makanda, again. More craftinet.
Cromie Kala, there's just
		
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			requirements everywhere, and we're
trying to do the best we can.
		
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			Doctor suluman, one of the things
that I've also seen is that
		
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			alongside just the immediate
access to water that you're
		
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			providing is you're assisting
communities with being able to
		
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			grow their own food, which I would
assume is a longer term
		
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			intervention when it comes to
dealing with the hunger and the
		
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			poverty situation.
		
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			Yes, Kathy, we forced to do that.
You know, it's just so much.
		
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			There's only so much food parcels
you can give. And whilst we were
		
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			busy net, the idea came up,
because of our balls are in
		
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			schools. So we told hydrologist,
because we saw in one of the
		
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			school, there was an attempt a
school called nursing Street
		
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			Primary. Unfortunately, the day we
had the function, two days later,
		
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			the principal of that school
passed on because of covid. And
		
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			you know, we all respects to his
family and to the man who passed
		
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			on. But in that school, there was
a small vegetable garden, and the
		
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			idea came we have balls in
virtually every school, in craft
		
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			unit. Let's use it as a prototype.
Let's send water out from the from
		
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			the walls. Make kids environmental
ambassadors, which we did. 110
		
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			students from 10 schools made them
environmental ambassadors. The
		
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			seeds were given, the TLB was
brought, the ground was graded,
		
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			instruments were given, and
already the seeds have been
		
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			planted, what has been put in, and
we're expecting growth in the next
		
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			few weeks. It was the same school
that Minister Barbara Chrissy, you
		
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			know, visited, and she's also very
keen to see this program extended
		
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			to schools throughout the country.
The advantage of that is if the
		
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			garden is well looked after, we
won't have the problem that we had
		
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			during covid 19, that when the
schools closed because of
		
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			lockdown, no children got feeding.
Feeding. There was no feeding
		
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			program. The school shut down and
the feeding program stopped. But
		
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			many principals we met said that
if we have gardens, we don't mind
		
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			opening the schools covid or non
covid to make food available to
		
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			the children so it can serve as a
lesson or a prototype during covid
		
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			and during non covid times. Dr
Imtiaz Suleman, thanks for your
		
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			time. We're going to leave it
there tonight. He is with gift of
		
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			the givers.