Imtiaz Sooliman – Gift of the Givers relief efforts for Chennai, Southern India

After some of the deadliest, heaviest rains in decades, the

National Disaster Response Force there says flooding has killed at

least 272

people in the state of Tamil Nadu since October already, and at

least 28,000 others have been rescued so far. NGO gift of the

givers will be embarking on relief efforts of their own. Dr, MTR

Suleiman from the humanitarian organization, joins us now from

our Durban studios. Good afternoon again, doctor, and sorry for that

earlier interruption.

That's fine. Thank you. We've had some very distressing pictures

coming out of Chennai and Tamil Nadu, but you're kind of in a

unique situation now, because the Indian Government hasn't requested

the help that they need.

Yes, it's a unique and the Indian government never asked for

international assistance. It has happened many times before. The

last one was when many years ago, it was a tsunami. And you know

that one was devastating. The whole endowment islands was

submerged in India, and the government then asked for help.

And India is very careful. It does its own assistance. And even

whilst that tsunami took place, it went next door to help Sri Lanka.

And people in South Africa started calling us, saying, We want to

help India. So I said, the Indian Government has not asked for

assistance, but they said, We feel very close to the people in

Chennai, and we like to help. At that point, on Sunday night, I got

a call from a South African who lives in India for 27 years, and

he said, I'm involved with the movie industry, and more than 100

teams from the movie union have gone out into Chennai, and they're

all assisting. They require assistance from the South Africans

to help them do what they're doing in India, and all of them, most of

them in South Africa, most of them in India, all mentioned clean

drinking water, and of course, they spoke about other things,

medicines, food, clothes. So we said, Okay, we don't do this

normally when the government doesn't call for aid, but since

there's an overwhelming need from the South Africans and teams on

the ground in India, we will make an exception and be a conduit for

the two sides to assist in the best way we can. And how are your

intentions being received by the Indian government at this point?

Doc,

well, they wouldn't, they wouldn't be against the idea, because they

know I've had dealings with them before in the past. I also dealt

with them during the Nepal earthquake, and I must say, they

were very, very good. It was a Sunday. It was a long weekend, and

I asked them to open Embassy on a Sunday through our international

relations department. And Indian Government, Deputy High

Commissioner immediately said, we'll open the embassy for you on

Sunday. So then our intentions, basically are to help people in

the best way we can without interfering with their process,

even with my context on the ground, we have, you know, sort of

satellite office inside India, they said, look, the Indian

government made 10 billion rupees available from the central

government to go to the state government. But even that will not

be enough, given the scale of the devastation inside China. And

that's true in any major disaster, a government itself cannot act on

its own. It requires assistance, but in this case, India is hoping

for assistance from within itself, rather than from outside. There's

been a fair degree of public anger, if you want, over the state

government's alleged failure to warn residents of flooding, and

then we had complaints of a slow response after the torrential

rains. Do you have any idea what kind of response we're seeing from

the Indian government right now?

Well, I can only take what I hear from the people on the ground, and

everybody says it's not enough, but that kind of comment you get

in every type of disaster, it's impossible to reach 1.8 million or

2 million people all at one time, especially when the airport is

closed, when roads are closed, when rain lines are affected, you

can't get there no matter what you do which government in the world,

whether it's in America, whether it's in Europe, whether it's in

China, if those kind of conditions face you, it's impossible to get

to the people it that's its natural disasters, do things like

that, and Quite often, the people who are supposed to be assisting,

they themselves are trapped, so it makes it very difficult. For

example, in certain areas, if the disaster response agency is

completely trapped, they need assistance. So they can't get out

to go help somebody else. So to bring teams from another part of

the country in a situation like that, where there's no open

airports or transport facilities, everything takes much longer, and

that's something people don't understand.

We understand a massive cleanup operation underway now, the very

elderly and young, of course, bearing the brunt of this. What

are some of the most urgent items that people are in need of? Now,

those that are affected, especially in the 5000 relief

camps set up across Chennai and very quickly, Doctor, how can

members of the public want to help contact you.

The water is the most essential need, food, medication. You have

to be careful of water borne disease, cholera, typhoid, you

know, and doesn't really issues like that. You need water

purification tablets. If you don't have clean drinking water, they

need.

Clothing, if they've lost everything they need utensils in

which to eat. Those are the basic items for people to contact us.

We're selling cash donations only. It's faster. It's more efficient.

Teams. The items are much cheaper. In India, you can buy, you know,

much vitamins at a lower price. And best way to call us is Oh,

800-780-6911

or visit www dot gift of the givers.org,

thank you. That was Dr MTR Suleiman from the humanitarian

organization. Gift of the givers joining us from the Durban

studios. If you do want to contribute to help the Fund for

flood affected victims in Chennai, that number He's given us is o8,

107, 869, double, one time to take a short break. I'll be back with

more news after this. You.