Imtiaz Sooliman – Gift of the Givers on relief efforts in Boksburg

Share the story and have a look at the humanitarian efforts which are

now being pulled together to help the survivors. We're joined by Dr

India Suleiman, founder of gift of the givers. Dr Suleiman, a very

good evening to you. As always, you are among the first to

announce that you were heading to boxburg. How big a team have you

deployed?

Good evening, because God wasn't necessary to employ a very big

team. There were, there were several stages to look at. The

first one was working together, what the authorities and of

course, at the outset, we must complement the health and health

department, the fire services, the emergency services, healthcare

workers, the staff and the neighboring community, who were

exceptional in responding very, very quickly process those

affected. We follow the system of working with the emergency

services and see what you acquire. So at the outset, we offer to send

in ambulances to move transfer, to transfer the injured patients or

the burn patients or hospitals they had managed. They were fine.

They done an excellent job. We then offered medical teams. Of our

teams, our volunteers, were prepared to come from throughout

the country, burn specialists and specialists, all types of skills,

were prepared to come from different hospitals to assist at

that hospital. But even then too, they said they were fine. Then the

third requirement, which they asked us specifically, was, burn

shields, burn dressings. Crave bandages, esthetics, energies. You

have machines to deliver analgesia, they said they may

require to try special types of nutritional feeds, depending on

the degree of firms of patients and what support they require. And

with all those things, the challenge was to get it done

before 12 o'clock, because today is the last day where the medical

companies closed, and you're able to see them around the first week

of January. So we had specialized medical teams working in all those

sectors, and we managed to procure all those essential items, and we

delivered a number of them to the hospital this morning to be used

for the patients. Are you looking at ongoing involvement in the

treatment of the people who were injured and perhaps even assisting

people nearby who may have been affected in other ways.

Yes, well, we don't step on the toes of the healthcare workers.

We've made it clear to the health of departments in the different

hospitals where the patients have gone to and to, or Cabo hospital

itself, that if they require any backup supplies used as a

shortage, we've procured all those items. This office still stands

that if they need medical personnel, in fact, a few minutes

ago, I got a call from the president of the burn society to

say that if they require personnel from throughout the country, they

can mobilize. Unlike that, many medical teams have come forward to

support us if we need assistance, but the other workers have been

admirable in managing the crisis themselves. What? And to answer

your question, you know, we also brought in supplies for the people

in the area, for the healthcare workers, for the firefighters,

emergency services. We brought in bottled water, energy energy

drinks, energy foods, fruits, and all those kind of support for

them. And it seems that there's a lot of support that's coming to

the community. So not not anymore is required. What's the besides?

Always support for the patients, and if the hospital is required,

we do have the medical conservables. But the main problem

now is to fix the infrastructure and the hospital itself, because

the emergency department is damaged, part of the theater of

the department is damaged, and some of the ICU patients had to

move because they uncertain about the structural damage to that part

of the hospital, so that's the priority that has to be fixed. And

those people's homes were damaged, that is resorted out to. And it

will just take it straight by ear and see what's required and what

can be done in the days going forward. And it's made worse the

damage to the hospital, because we know there's the ongoing

conversation. Has been an ongoing conversation, in fact, in this

country, about the state of the hospitals and how many are already

in such a poor state, and now you've got one damaged by an

explosion, and it'll probably not be fixed in the next week or two.

It'll take quite a while. No, it's gonna take a long time. Remember,

it's December. Nobody works now, no construction companies. You're

gonna come on site. Now, English, you want to come on site. There's

no workers. It's gonna take a long time. No, but depends on how badly

damaged. And you know, engineers to make an assessment, I think

they have infrastructure people from national health, but

yesterday, also to have a look around the building. And if it can

be soft, out quickly. We don't want another repeat of Charlotte

neke, which is still undergoing repairs, and not in all possible

hospitals. We just cannot afford another hospital being delayed

forever into infinity, so we need decisive intervention and to get

the job done as soon as possible. And what happened today is a

tragedy made worse because, of course, this was not just any

ordinary explosion. A gas tanker exploded, and as we now know, of

these nine people dead, dozens more have been injured. Many of

them have severe burn wounds. What should we do in the case of a fire

emergency, if we're nearby? Because when you look at some of

the videos, people appear, or, in fact, were unable to figure out

what they needed to do.

To even help some of the worst affected,

there's not much you can do to prepare for systemic people come

out for good purpose. Whenever they receive fire you may shack or

water in flood situation or bad weather or hurricanes. People,

South Africans, by nature, are those who want to have other South

Africans. It's something that we see over and over again, because

it in flats. People old people were sorting in their homes.

People were not divers who are not sober. Specialists climb into the

windows and pull them out, you know, and people came to each

other's assistance. People as the rivers, the water was rising 848,

minutes and 45 eight meters in 45 minutes, people saw the screaming

coming out of the houses to help the neighbors, get out and call

for boats to take them away. The same in the situation when there's

fire taking place in informal settlements, people grab each

other, they have friends, they help neighbors, they pull them

out. So in this situation, people saw fire but didn't know what the

cause of the fire was. The fact that it was close to hospital

makes your body because the patients are fired, and people are

starting to move towards that for two reasons, either as unlock

curiosity or to see if they can do something to assist. Nobody

expected such sudden, but without any warning, and in that process,

unfortunately, all those around were affected in a big way. 163

people affected were the burns, six nurses from the hospital, one

doctor from hospital. You know, nine, something 11 passed on, 24

to 27 with severe injuries. All that happened, but people who went

there for one injured when they would faint and and of course, you

can see the outpouring of support from the neighboring communities.

It's just who South Africans are. We stand for each other. We think

that this and we get to support each other, and that's why this

major disaster happened. Dr India Suleman, founder of gift of the

givers, thank you for your time. As always we.