Imtiaz Sooliman – Gift of the Givers relief operation in Alexanra.

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.