Imtiaz Sooliman – Gift of the Givers step in to assist Eastern Cape residents affected the storm

Residents in certain areas of the Eastern Cape are picking up on the

pieces after a massive storm left a trail of destruction of a large

area at the mostly rural amatole District felt the brunt of the

storm. Mopping up operations have started while the authorities are

assessing the damage. The gift of the givers have stepped in to

assist residents affected by the storm. We speak to the founder now

the of the of the organization, Doctor India siloman, a very good

morning to you. Doctor silaman, and thank you so much for talking

to us this morning.

Good morning. Desiree, thank you. What did you find when you hit the

ground?

It was, it was a massive destruction. But our teams got

there yesterday morning. I mean, they've seen the areas a lot. The

amount of houses is damaged, are totally destroyed, more than 1000

the anxiety among the people, the children, the elderly, extremely

worried. It's Christmas and it's it's a bad time again. Last year,

they couldn't see family members coming from other parts of the

country because of covid 19, and this year, they wanted that the

family members will not come back because there's nothing to come

to. Many of the homes are destroyed partially or totally.

The foods. Food is gone. You know, clothing is messed up, furniture

is messed up. They're not sure what to do, and they were very

anxious that afternoon, when the storm hit around four o'clock,

they said the children were terrified with the wind and the

sound and the noise, but when they saw trucks in the morning, 12

o'clock the next day, no at the municipality itself. There was a

huge sigh of relief from the social development people, from

disaster management, from the mayor, from the municipality.

There was instant assistance from the people itself. Food was

provided in terms of hot meals, and people were very, very happy,

you know. And food parcels, blankets and mattresses were given

yesterday, to the credit of the municipality. They brought the

people from the different areas to make it easier, and they brought

them to the Alice Paul to do the distribution. There, that's the

one sign where the homes, the residents have been affected. At

the same time, we got a call from the district health director. And

she said, day in serious travel, 14 clinics have been badly damaged

in terms of roofs, windows, medical equipment, medicines and

patient files. And in addition, three hospitals, the Victoria

Hospital, Fort Beaufort and the winter bacteria hospital, have

also been damaged, and we're waiting for the feedback on that

assessment. So and even, of course, businesses in town have

been affected, especially in Fort mofon, it's a very wide area that

has been affected by this brother's tornado. This is massive

destruction. 14 clinics affected. Um, government,

yeah. Government has got an infrastructure project that's

ongoing, and things like that would fall within that Ambit. How

are you working with government? Doctor Sullivan,

I

was just wanting to find out what interactions you're having with

government in terms of how to go about you spoke about the initial

help that you provided, but of course, there also being long term

needs. So how you what sort of conversations are you having with

government about what to do going forward?

Well, right now, the first, the instant help was, you know,

require request was from the district directors for from the

municipality and Sasa to bring additional assistance, which we

did, which we brought, but the extent of the housing damage,

that's going to require the intervention of human settlements.

And apparently there's a similar destruction in a path that

happened a few days ago for which assistance hasn't been provided.

So our human settlements will have to get involved, because it's

quite a big destruction, and I don't expect people in that area

to able to be able to afford to fix the homes themselves, in terms

of the hospital itself also, you know, it's a public

works department to sort it out, but we've asked them to give us

feedback as to what's required if the damage is getting the swab.

You know, we don't mind sending in our own building teams. It was

something not too major, and our building teams out stand by. They

said they don't mind working during the holidays to sort it

out. Those you cannot have clinics that have no roof. Where do the

patients go? We already got such a massive backlog in health because

of covid 19, we can't go further back and wait till next year to

fix things up. So if the roof is not difficult, the windows are not

difficult, the medical equipment will have to look at the

medicines. We can ask corporate companies to sponsor, but it's a

very bad time of the year when most people are closing right now,

but we'll see what's available and what's possible. And we're just

waiting for that feedback, the assessment from the house people

to send us that, that whole report, the analysis, and as I

said, our building teams on standby. If the costs are visible,

we can send in a team in the next 40 hours to go fix on it. Those

things are you're talking about help coming from corporates and

coming from government. But it's the holiday season, which is

usually a giving season. How can we call upon South African

citizens to come through and help as well.

Well, cash contributions will be the best. But I want to put it

into perspective. We need to understand that these are very

poor people from rural, the rural part of the Eastern Cape. They've

had a hard time, you know? They haven't seen family members from

early last year, and with all the.

Lockdowns. Last year, the family members haven't come home, so

there's a huge gap. You know, there's been, they haven't seen

the members. It's very painful for them. And now, in a time where

things are much better, there's only level one lockdown, they're

enthusiastically waiting for the family members to come home. This

happens to them. It's going to be a very bleak Christmas for them.

You know, we can help them with food parcels and other support,

but if you can give them some funding towards fixing the houses

themselves. Look, many of these people not build houses

themselves. If you can get that rapid rapidly to them, there will

be the best festive intervention we can do during the time of

giving the best way to get hold of us is on our social media. Gift of

give us the all or our toll free life all 807

86911, 86911,

in December. Thank you so much for talking to us this morning.

It's a pleasure. Thank you.