Imtiaz Sooliman – How to let Humanity Win
AI: Summary ©
The speakers discuss the impact of recent floods on people, including the loss of food and water supplies. They also touch on the "back-to-school" approach to learning from the western world, where schools provide resources and guidance. The "ballwork of the Islamic economy" involves sharing experiences and experiences of the "ballwork of the economy" to help people overcome their mental health issues. The speakers emphasize the importance of sharing compassion and compassion to help people.
AI: Summary ©
It's always easier to have friends than to have enemies, and when you
have diverse people, well, let's make it practical. Let's make it
practical. Let's take a classical example, in the floods recently in
sus Dao in the Western Cape
and Daal, we went to the areas you couldn't fly helicopters. The wind
was too strong, the rain was too strong, the roads were cut off.
Boats couldn't move, and you couldn't get into the area where
people were without food and water for almost four days. Together
with the saps, the disaster management municipality pilots,
gifts of the givers teams. And eventually we called in the
farmers and the community leaders. We then the farmers, then took us
to a road that a farm at connecting to to clear and down.
And slowly we found a bridge that had that was submerged in water.
The engineers came on site and said, Are you willing to take the
chance? My driver said, yes. So the driver said, We will stay on
the site. On the side of the of the of the bridge. If you guys
fall in, we take you out. And together, in that kind of
combination, we worked. And the first truck went across, the
second truck went across, and with the community leaders, the
municipality, disaster management, SAP is all of us together, we
managed to deliver food, bottle water, hygiene, cracks and support
to people who are cut off from the rest of the country at that period
of time. So yes, it was far better working together. The critical
component is not to have ego. When people don't have ego, they don't
want to get the credit, and they do it in interest of fellow human
beings. There's much you can achieve in the country and
outside. We've been to crisis situations all over the world.
What's striking is that people who have been affected by the crisis,
in most cases, they win a disaster. Before the disaster hit,
the disaster was a blessing. It amplified the people's resistance,
their resilience and the challenges they were having. Let's
take some examples. When we got to Niger, it was a famine. August,
2005
the drought destroyed the crops. What just left the Locust came and
made everything up. When we got there with our primary healthcare
teams and with food, the government met us, because the
important thing, again, as I mentioned, is no ego. When you go
in there, you don't think that you're some kind of great lord
that has come from another country. You can't say I studied
in UCD and wits and ukzn and Victoria fishing, especially many
medical guys. You come here and you tell the governments, we are
brothers. We're from Africa. We've come to work with you. Do you need
us? How do you need us? How do we purchase your system? We are not
here to change the system. When that happens, the governor met us.
The mayor met us. The police matters, the district people
matters, the nurses matters. They beat the drum the old system,
because people didn't know there's a foreign team here. So the people
come in their 1000s. We realized seven or eight of us can't see all
these patients. So we triage. We walk to the crowd. Remember, it's
famine, it's malnutrition. The disease is hunger. We touched. We
look at the patients, we tell the mother, because we don't speak the
language, so it's the language of the heart. You point to the baby,
you tell the mother, you can go. The mother understands the
language of the heart and walks out. Something else happens? No
adult males come, no teenagers come, no big kids come and the
mother Don't ask for help for themselves. I couldn't understand
that, and I couldn't understand when I did this and told them go.
They started smiling. After a few minutes, they all started doing
it.
And I'm trying to figure out in seven Why are these people doing
this when there's no doctor that night, we have a session every
night, a briefing session. Tulas, who was with SABC radio at that
time, he would even say, now came and he said, because they go into
the areas, he puts his head up first. He says, I want to say
something. He said, I went to the villages here in kila Berry and
found that three to five children were dying a day. I said, stop. I
have the answer. He said, What do you mean? I said, adult males
didn't come. Mothers didn't take treatment. Teenagers didn't come
and big kids didn't come because they knew we had limited
resources, so they were prepared to sacrifice themselves for the
other kids that were really good benefit so they don't become part
of the statuses of death. And when they walked out of the queue, it
was the same reason their kids were sick, but they were not as
sick as other children. But the crucial point to remember is there
is no guarantee another medical team is coming in 10 days time.
There's no guarantee food is coming in 10 days time. So the
chances are that in 10 days time, their child is going to be sick as
the very critical child now, but they made the supreme sacrifice.
That's the Ubuntu spirit of the people of Africa. When we gave out
the food, there was far more people than we had food. So we
split the food fastened into three ways, rice, maize, sugar and other
things, and we split them out. When it was finished, there was no
riot, there was no complaint. They just put the head down and they
slowly. They walked out with absolute discipline and dignity.
And then those who had received and in minimum.
They already shared. Now they said, Come my brothers and
sisters, bring a cup. Bring a bowl. We'll put for you. And in
that hardship situation, they shared, there's a message to
people who are well meaning, who are not well meaning, or have
earned well, who have support, who have infrastructure, who have
equipment, we have money. It's important in life to share,
because the blessings that come from that you cannot put a price
to it. We have a special word for that in Arabic. In Islamic
teaching, it's called barakah. Baraka is an Islamic word, meaning
that whatever you give the blessing multiplies 10 fold to 700
fold. It comes back in a huge way. It bounties upon bounties upon
bounties without measure. You can't feel it, you can't see it.
It's not tangible, but it impacts in your life, having good
children, having a heavy having a happy marriage, income comes from
somewhere. Food comes good health, blessings. Difficulties come. Yes,
you'll be tested, but they always overcome because of barakah, my
spiritual teacher, who gave me the instruction to form gift of the
givers. Remember, I didn't get out one morning and say to myself, I'm
going to form an organization. Never happened like that. It's
totally spiritual, a spiritual instruction from the person
several 1000 kilometers away in this town. Board. It's a long
story. How I even met him by coincidence. In the spiritual
world, there is no coincidence. He told me, my son, mankind is one
single nation. A god of Al mankind is one. We just know him by
different names,
any person, Imam, Sheik, Priest, Pandit, Rabbi who promotes
violence, extremism, Discord, conflict, confrontation is not a
man of God. Don't follow him. Anyone who preaches love,
kindness, compassion and mercy. Is a man of God. Follow him and
always look after dignity of people. We don't look at race.
Serve people unconditionally. Don't look at race, religion,
color, class, political, revelation or geographical
location. You serve everybody unconditionally. Expect nothing in
return. We've applied that. I'm doing this work for 33 years, and
wherever we go, when you do that unconditionally, you win our
hearts. When we went to a place called hafun, affected by the
tsunami of 2004 all the people came the queue. And you know what?
They were all not sick, but all they wanted was reassurance that
the medical team came because they haven't seen doctors. And you ask
them, what's your problem? I had a headache six months ago, stomach
ache a year ago, and all they want is somebody to talk to them
gently, so you touch them gently, you listen to them, you empathize
with them, you show compassion to them, you give them a listening
ear, and you talk to them a loving way. 60 to 70% of the disease is
gone. They heal just by compassionate approach you.