Imtiaz Sooliman – Gift of the Givers relief operation in Alexanra.
AI: Summary ©
A representative from the gift of the givers foundation discusses their program to help people affected by natural disasters. They have been helping in various areas, including Alexandria, through various projects, including hot meals and cold meals. They emphasize the importance of education and community involvement in preventing future crises.
AI: Summary ©
Well, following the fall, the cold temperatures around
the country, the gift of the givers have
intervened where they can. And so joining us
now from our Durban Studios is doctor Imtiaz
Solomon from the gift of the givers foundation.
Good afternoon, doctor Solomon. Your organization has been
assisting in Alexandria. Do tell us more about
it.
Yes. Good morning, Nompu. Normally, when a disaster
happens, quite often, we get calls from the
local disaster management
to to ask if we can assist. And
this morning, we got such such a call
to say they required assistance due to the
fire, and we responded to many, many fires
and floods in in Alex. Our teams then
cooked food. They took in blankets, food parcels,
diapers, sanitary pads, and went across and delivered
it to the people. This afternoon, they'll be
providing hot meals for the for many of
those affected, but they realize that there's a
shortage of mattresses. We will be bringing that
in this afternoon. But this is a very
standard response
in most of the areas that we've seen
fires with and floods throughout the country. Okay.
Is Alexandria the only area that you've been
assisting in? And for how long will you
be able to sustain this program, you know,
if the cold weather continues?
No. It's ALEKS is not the only area.
You know, it's it's ALEKS is in the
news now. We've been helping in winter in
in different parts of the country for a
long time.
Whenever winter comes, we always gear up ourselves
to help in different areas.
We've got 60,000 blankets as a first out,
quantity,
then followed by another 20,000 blankets on standby.
We helped in a place called Bodime in
the northwest 2 weeks ago. Then last week,
we went to Shushung Guevie. We're also helping
Kiley Chad tomorrow morning.
Then for the last 10 days, we've been
involved in Sutherland.
There's lots of cold air, and we moved
in supplies
minus 3 degrees. So there's lots of supplies
going to Sutherland in terms of warm clothing,
blankets, scarves, polo fleece, jackets,
shoes. Shoes is also a common thing that
we distribute in different areas. So this is
not new to us today, Alex. We've been
doing this for quite some time. Tomorrow,
our trucks arrive in Grantstown
over 3 days in partnership with SABC.
We will be doing distributions in 3 informal
settlements
in and around Grantstown, and this is something
that we do every year also. So, yes,
to answer your question, we're involved in Alex,
but we're involved in many areas, and we'll
continue to support while the winter is on.
We have the goods, we have the supplies,
and we're on standby.
Your work is always obviously very commendable. But
when you look at these situations, which you
say you intervene in year in, year out
and always help with, do you always get
a feeling that perhaps something needs to be
done more structurally
so that when things like this do happen,
it doesn't happen year in, year out?
Well, the the common thing, you know, is
is is the fire the shack fire. I
mean, this this is something that can be
prevented
from many ways.
First of all, education
of the people themselves living in those informal
settlements. In most cases, it's a premise that
explodes or somebody drops a candle in the
cold weather or and and the worst part
is if a child gets left in the
in the fire and so many kids die.
I mean, that's unacceptable. So education to the
to the families themselves is vital. But more
than that,
the the homes have to be built apart.
We set up an example, a sample in
2013
in Alexandra also, not far from Marlborough.
After the floods in the Yexa river repeatedly
every year, we got fed up. We told
the city council, we can't be doing this
thing over and over every year, and they
gave us a piece of land right near
the excavated but on higher ground, and we
set up a model village
fully paved with the houses passed
spaced out. So 1 house burns, all the
other houses don't burn. And we use fire
resistant,
not fireproof,
but fire resistant material. So if the fire
starts, at least you got 20 minutes to
take your child out, to take out an
old granny, to take out somebody who's physically
challenged. That's a model we set as exam
as an example, Alex, and the whole country
can follow that model.
Ministers, premiers, international visitors have seen the area,
and they love it. Even even settlements have
seen it. Major construction companies have seen it,
and we think that's the way to follow.
So in future, you prevent bigger crisis and
bigger destruction and more deaths in the country.
Long may your work continue, sir. Thank you
very much for your time. That was doctor,
in Tiyaz, Solomon from the Gift of the
Givers Foundation.