Imtiaz Sooliman – Gift of the Givers’ warning of the malnutrition crisis in South Africa
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The United Nations warns that the global population of children needing critical nutrition services will lead to a negative sentiment due to child labor problems. The speakers emphasize the need for government support for food parcels and assistance for farmers and entrepreneurs, particularly in the farming sector, to prevent malnutrition and illness in the South African population. The speakers also discuss the importance of sustainable work and protecting children from malnutrition, and mention the success of their partnership with the health department to educate people about the risks of malnutrition. They hope that things will improve soon.
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Let's go to this conversation now. Gift of the givers, imtia Suleiman
is warning of malnutrition crisis in South Africa. Now, the covid 19
pandemic has further exacerbated the inequalities with calls to
address food security growing louder and louder. Now, the United
Nations Children's Fund says in the absence of decisive and timely
action. Covid 19 will result globally in a 15% rise in the
number of children needing critical nutrition services.
Doctor MTS Suleiman, founder of gift of the givers, joins us live
now. Thank you so much for your time. Doctor Sullivan, let's start
with you know, because you're always on the ground paints a
picture for us of how bad it is.
Good evening, the picture is bad. You know, you monitor that by the
number of calls and requests that you get for assistance. That's the
best way. And for the last few months, in fact, for quite some
time post covid, it was during covid, but post covid, we're
getting calls for more soup kitchens for many parts of the
country, large parts of the Eastern Cape, especially rural
parts of Eastern Cape. And then, of course, from from Northern
Cape, the calls have been calling in, the emails have been calling
in, again, very, very rural, quite a few parts of free state,
especially on the eastern side. The the request for a number of
people coming to a soup kitchen since before, it used to be like
once a week. Now they need to do it four or five times a week. It
should be 100 people. Nicely to one people. The school principals
are telling us that the kids that come to school, that's the only
meals that they have when they go home, there's no meals for them
and there's no meat meals for the parents. And another large
category of people are university students from all over and hunger
classes. It's been growing among university students who say
they've got academic tuition, they've got their textbooks,
they've got their transport, but they got no food and they can't
concentrate. And the other emerging phenomena is hunger in
the middle class, a lot of people have lost jobs. They've lost the
have taken the deduction in income. It is a joint income, the
cost of inflation, the interest rates, you know, the fuel price,
so they have less money to buy food and to pay for school fees
and other such items and healthcare. And you find that
there is hunger in those homes. But because of the status being
middle class and not lower class, a lot of people sit in in and
suffer in silence because of that hunger, and when you then are
listening to some of these calls that you then would be receiving,
I mean, you're saying that people asking for soup kitchens to be
about four times a week instead of one. Is this a an admission by
them that there is no help at all on the ground, what? What is
happening in terms of some of the responses that government should
be putting in place to be able to assist there with food parcels or
something?
The strange thing is, government that's calling us quite often.
It's mayors and councilors are not quite honest and say, June, you
know, the situation in the country, municipalities are
dysfunctional. They say, it's not a secret, it's a fact. Lots of
municipalities are bankrupt. We don't have the means. We need
support from central government, but everybody needs a support from
national government, all the big institutions, SOEs, everybody
needs help. And they said, look, we've lost a lot of jobs. A lot of
industries have closed, and there's no new industries coming
in our areas. So our people like the mercy of, you know, of
handouts, and a lot of people, especially in black communities,
you know, their family members from other parts of the country
would send money or would send food, but they've lost their jobs,
or the income income is cut here, or the expense of a increase, so
they have less money or less disposable income to buy more food
for those areas. So the municipalities are helpless. The
people are helpless, the family members are helpless. It's it's
just the donors and those who have means the generosity of those that
are keeping in these these people sustained, of course, and the need
is growing until we address unemployment and get more jobs
created and had more money coming to the areas, this problem is
going to get far worse. How then do South Africans begin to respond
to this crisis? Because if you're even getting calls from
government, it tells you just how dire the situation is on the
ground.
Yes, you know it's South Africans have to start well, not they have.
The South Africans have done well. South Africans have gone out of
the way to assist, but it starts with in your own families, because
quite often it may be even in your own family, it may be a cousin, a
relative you know, and everyone can take care of a few people.
Helps. Check with your domestics, check with your staff in your
work, check with the neighbors down the road and the community.
We can't help everybody, that's the reality, but you can have
those closest to you, those who are family, those who are in the
streets, in the neighborhood, and those who are in companies. We
need to do that in the best way possible, to assist, but of
course, then to to organizations that are directly in the
grassroots, helping, helping men, women and children. The other
thing that we can do, and this is a call to corporate south.
Africa, you know. Take it an extra salaried person into your into
your employee. Take youth you know, and give them a stipend, and
give them skills. And it's introduce them into your company.
It will not only be about giving them a stipend, it will be about
giving themselves as team, giving them skills, giving them
experience, giving them trust in themselves to make a start, you
know, and it's a business expense. So all corporate companies, we ask
you in South Africa, employ one youth, you know, a youth plays a
role in the family, and let's try to do that even in the farms. You
know, I was, I was at a conference on Friday asking farmers also to
take in youth and teach them and give them skills. And with farming
skills, of course, you learn agriculture. What agriculture you
learn plenty of food, but plenty of food, there's food security. So
while they may not be money to buy a range of items, but with
different seeds and different plants and different crops, you at
least can have something to sustain yourself, to prevent
illness and malnutrition from lack of food and from food insecurity.
Those are the kind of things that we can do in the country where at
least somebody has something to eat at least once a day. And
Doctor Sullivan, in light of all of this, I mean, you're thinking
about parents who've lost their jobs, and as you say, some of them
are too ashamed to even ask for help. You think of university
students. You think of some of you know, people in communities. What
is the situation like with the little ones, you know, the
children. How bad are things there?
It's very critical. Up to right now, the kids have been dying of
malnutrition, especially in Eastern Cape. If you check on the
hospitals, you check with the health department, you check with
the doctors, a lot of children have been dying from malnutrition,
especially in rural Eastern Cape. And when you ask why, it's you
know, it's heartbreaking. They die because for adults, it's quite
normal to be hungry. Hungry is the norm. It's the standard that they
don't eat. And when they don't have food, that same hunger passes
on to a child, because they don't have the means to pay for food for
their child, and they will survive, but the child will come
to a clinic a little too late and come to a hospital too late, and
the child will die because there's just not enough food, and there's
no patient education about the dangers of malnutrition. And we've
partnered with the health department, with dietitians to go
out and try to educate people to say this is a problem. You know
what? We need to identify this early, but you can identify it,
but if you don't have the means to sustain it or to feed What do you
do? Fortunately, we had what is called Easy peanut paste. It's a
product with proteins and micronutrients. It provides energy
instantly for children and adults. When we started using it, the
company that makes it is a Norwegian company. They saw the
product on our social media pages, and it gave us 25 million Rand
worth of free product to assess people, you know, and children,
men, women, children. We're very, very grateful for that. We're very
grateful to corporate companies who bring some maize and flour and
people who bring fruit and vegetables, whatever we can get.
And as I said, if South Africans individually can do it in the
areas around them, and no will happen whichever way we can
collectively, we need to feed, but there's a lot of hungry children.
I mean, we extensively involved in Eastern Cape, but I guess, and
then I'm almost certain, but the cause we get it from Northern Cape
and parts of free state that this problem is going to extend. Hey,
what about Western Cape? We got 90 soup kitchens in the Western Cape
alone. You know, we not be malnourished children like in
Eastern Cape and what we are expecting to see the Northern
Cape, but nevertheless, there's hunger even in the Western Cape
and throughout the country, more and more calls multiply, please.
Can you give us a soup kitchen? And I hope those calls are heeded.
You know, Doctor Sullivan thinking about little ones who are really
bearing the brunt of what's going on here and how desperate the
situation is on the ground, and I do hope that things improve soon.
Thank you so much for your time. Do appreciate it. That is Dr
Imtiaz Suleiman, founder of gift of the givers.