Imtiaz Sooliman – Gift of the Givers on stand to assist earthquakeravaged Morocco
AI: Summary ©
The Moroccan government is preparing for a rescue mission to Morocco, which will involve 30 personnel, many of whom are trained in structural collapse. The mission is expected to be disaster, but the team is working on finding a way to alleviate the situation in other countries, including Pakistan and Bulgaria. The speakers emphasize the importance of disaster management and support for firefighters and thousands of people lost their lives.
AI: Summary ©
For more on this. We're now joined by Dr Imtiaz Suleiman, founder of
the gift of the givers, and he joins us for this conversation via
our video link. Dr Imtiaz, thank you so much for joining us here on
the late edition. Perhaps let's start off here. What are your
thoughts when it comes to the tragedy that has struck the people
of Morocco?
Well, every tragedy like this, it's, you know, it's
heartbreaking, it's tough for the people, for the families, for the
country, for the government. There's a huge loss of life.
There's more than five and 2900
people have already passed on. There's more than 5000 or five and
a half 1000 people injured. And you know, there's people still
missing in the level. We don't know whether they are alive or
deceased. So it's, it's a huge tragedy. It's complicated because
it's in the mountains. It reminds me of the earthquake that was in
Pakistan, eight October. 2005 reminds me of the earthquake that
was in Nepal, in the mountains. Again, you know, in 2015 very
complicated to work in the mountains stuff, and you need all
the resources and get the areas as soon as you can get but of course,
we we've offered the Moroccan government, as many governments
and NGOs throughout the world have done, offered assistance. We're
just waiting to see what the decision is going to be. Yeah, and
I was coming to that exactly because I heard you there on my
colleagues package saying that you will not impose yourself when it
comes to assistance in Morocco. Have they responded? Or perhaps,
when are you expecting them to respond?
Well, there's this big scar of messages. You know, our ambassador
Ibrahim iris in Rabat spoke to them, you know, to people within
the engineering ministry. I The our DJ, spoke to the ambassador.
People from intelligent inspector general of intelligence, spoke to
the ambassador and the deputy ambassador. I spoke to the deputy
ambassador, and the current message is sent out that, you
know, we are taking limited assistance from friendly
countries. You must read the messages we have accepted
assistance from Spain, UK, UAE and cattle, and on a day by day basis,
we'll decide if we need any more assistance, if we don't want to
complicate the area. It's very complicated, you know, because we
can't access the area. So that's the publication. So the replies,
they the sort of replies come back. You know, we appreciate your
personal job of assistance rather more we've only accepted from four
countries. Yeah, and you know, should the Moroccan government
respond as early as yesterday when it comes to the teams you have
prepared, you know, how many teams, or how many people will you
be sending to Morocco to assist that country?
Right now we have 33 people on standby, 28 search and rescue. And
as you mentioned beginning in your introduction, four of them are
from CPU, t cp. UT is a partner to us. They also have their own
equipment, which assists in getting more equipment on site.
The second team that's going to be joining us for the first time is
halting EMRs. You know, they they also come with only 4.6 people
from them, and then the rest is our teams wait up from the people
from Limpopo
Province, from state and other parts of the country, many of them
work in government facilities. And we encourage taking people that
work in government facilities, because it upskills Our people and
it trains them further for the public service, the other big
addition is the canines from the saps SAP is becoming a permanent
part of our infrastructure. Now they came with us to Turkey, and
now the Deputy National commissioner has released five
dogs and five handlers to come with us. So altogether, 28 search
and rescue personnel, many of the paramedics, you know, people
trained in structural collapse, five dog handlers and five dogs.
And behind that, if necessary, we've told the Moroccan government
that if your medical guys need assistance, we've got hundreds of
health workers, you know, on standby for different skills come
on board. And in addition to that, we can help a material aid for 10s
blankets, medicines, food and all those kind of items once you're on
site and Dr Intel's, I mean, when it comes to a rescue mission of
this nature, I mean, you've already spoken about that, it
reminds you of Nepal in 2015 it also reminds you of the quake In
Pakistan. What goes into, you know, trying to assist a nation,
especially one that is so mountainous,
it's very complicated, you know, and But the fortunate part about
this mountain, the houses in this mountain, they're not, they're not
high houses, more single story or double storey houses, which makes
it a little easier. In Turkey, it wasn't a mountain. It was flat,
but it was 12 storey buildings that pancake in two minutes. You
only saw two floors. The other 10 were missing. You know, it
crumbled completely. And in Nepal, it is very, very complicated. You
couldn't get to the areas the helicopters could enrich people
could enrich.
Is exhausting. It takes a long time, and by the time you
eventually get to the people, in some cases, you don't even worry
anymore. You know, it's a good crew to say. You just people are
Budd in the bubble, and you know, you're never going to get them
out, because you can't reach them in this place. It seems look
besides the borders on the road, it looks like the area is
accessible, because they are getting to several areas. But they
need to move more faster. We probably don't have enough
equipment. I mean, enough manpower, or the terrain is far
more complicated that we can see through the pictures, but every
day, they are making some progress, and the offer we've
made, I mean, mentioned in the beginning is we're not imposing
ourselves on you. We certainly don't come and be, you know, a
burden on your head, but if you need assistance, and by the time
you open those roads, your armed forces are going to be exhausted
because it's tough going and walking to rubber. And secondly,
emotionally, it's it's hard to see people coming out from the rubber,
either in displaced or deceased. And worse than that is the people
around you know, call you will say, My son is caught up in the
building. My baby is right there, my family spot up and everybody
follows at the same time. It's very emotional, exhausting at that
point. If you open it up for 14 from several countries, they can
access areas. And there's a chance, I think we'll stop
fighting live people even eight or 10 days later, because it's a
single and double story building stock more than that. And Doctor
Imtiaz, another tragedy you had to deal with not so long ago here in
South Africa, in the city of Johannesburg, was indeed when we
saw that building in the Johannesburg CBD going up in
flames. Perhaps, if you can just give us, you know, an update when
it comes to you know, your help there to the various families
who've been affected by that fire
in South Africa, we always wait for disaster management to spot
first. Remember, our team members are also within disaster
management within the different structures in the country. So as a
rule, we don't jump in first. We always wait for disaster
management to get in. And in virtually 100% of the cases, they
call us to support them. In cases of fire, while the firefighting
takes a long time, the first request always is, can you please
support the firefighters with liquids, energy drinks, energy
biscuits and hot meals? And we generally do that. We've done it
many times in 2017
with the National Fire. You support the 1200 firefighters
twice a day, but energy drinks and energy biscuits, but and meals
every day in the UCT fires, we support the firefighters again for
those fires, and then in last year, November, we support the
firefighters. And we brought in additional personnel to support
the firefighters. So we supported the firefighters. They did an
excellent job. Yeah, in evening, once the fire was settled, we were
waiting for the know, the residents survivors, to go to
shelters, and when the busses came, many of them did not want to
go for two reasons. One is they were afraid that what positions
are left in the building will disappear. And remember, these are
poor people, these are their lives, positions. And secondly,
the foreign nationals. They were not only foreign nationals. In
survey, there were many South Africans in the Berlin also a
foreign nationals were afraid they will be taken to a trusted camp
and they will be deported. So they did not want to get in a bus.
Issue of trust and suspicion. Eventually, that night, 190
people did move, and they went to three different shelters. We
provided mattresses, blankets, food and support for them. And to
cut a long story short, we supported them. Till Sunday, more
people started coming. You know, eventually the figure supported
more than 300 from the county. There were 425, people in Italy,
but over 300 eventually went to the shelters, and we supported the
brightest. All right then, Dr Imtiaz, thank you so much for your
time. Thank.