Imtiaz Sooliman – Interview on the Global Citizen Award
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It was a Thursday night. I was in Istanbul. I met a spiritual
teacher that Thursday night, after a prayer session, he just looked
at me in the eye as if he was connecting somewhere out of the
world. He said, My son, I'm not asking you, I'm instructing you to
form an organization. The name in Arabic will be what for what we
feel. Translated into English, means gift of the givers. And then
he said something very important. He said, Whatever you do is done
through you cannot buy you. It's a spiritual calling. This is an
instruction for you for the rest of your life. So gift of the game
was born on that night, sixth August, 1992 in Istanbul.
Interior.
Gift of the game was started off as a disaster response agency,
with still our primary function, we'll be specialists in disaster
response. So disaster this a complete disaster package. People
don't either primary health care, or they do trauma or they do
certain rescue. We do the whole package. I don't think any
organization will understand, and that's only one aspect disaster
response. But we do housing projects in South Africa and in
disasters. We do agriculture, provision of water. We probably
the biggest agency dealing with travel to South Africa right now.
We do food parcels, feeding streams, bursaries, education
projects. We do sports development, life skills
counseling, provision of fee or wheelchairs management support
hospitals. We do a range of different things, and it's
probably the most complete organization in the world in terms
of disaster response and the type of projects that we do, because
people then look at us and say, but what do you really do? You
know, when they see so many different types of products, they
get amazed. And everything that we do, we design ourselves. The
housing project that we designed in Kaiji, Chai, Cape Town and
Alexandra in Venezuela has been seen by the big construction
companies themselves. Came to see what we did many years previous,
international guest ambassadors have come to see that kind of
project. And then we designed the world's first containerized,
private containerized mobile hospital, the world's
containerized Primary Health Care Unit. We designed the world's
first groundnut, soya, high energy and protein supplement.
Our first project was Bosnia. We got involved in the civil war in
Bosnia, where there were tons of refugees coming out from the
country, and we responded to the needs of the refugees, and we
responded to the needs of the country. And this, I'm proud of
Africa, because the first containerized mobile hospital in
the world was designed by us in Africa in 1993 and we took it from
Africa to Europe. And that hospital was filmed by
international media, and they said CNN covered it, and said that this
South African hospital is comparable to any of the best
hospitals in Europe. And when I went back in 2005 at the
invitation of the Bosnian government, the people who are
still running hospital said that this South African Hospital has
given life to 10s of 1000s of people. Many babies have been born
here, and so disaster response was our first intervention. We started
off building the hospital over a period of time. You know, we only
took in things like 10s blankets and medicines as we evolved. We
then put in primary health care, medical teams. Then we came into
trauma teams, post trauma rehab, post trauma counselors. Then we
added search and rescue. We took in sniffer dogs. We started
putting up housing projects, providing water and all the
medicines and potato we started building hospitals in the war
zone. Right now, in Syria, we have two hospitals running inside the
war zone that people have tried bombing it many times, you know,
and we've survived. And we're looking at now putting a dead
hospital in the war zone and putting a passive orphanage for
1000 children to teach them, to support them and also look after
many refugees, which we are looking after right now inside
Syria,
in this holy place, Muslim holy place, there Were people of all
cultures, all religions, all countries, Jews, Christians,
Hindus, those who said you don't believe in any type of deity. You
know people from America, Russia, India, Australia, Mexico, Brazil,
Africa. And I was surprised to see the harmony between different
cultures in my holy place. He looked at me, and I was stunned to
see this kind of unity and calmness between people. He asked
me, What? And this was in August, 19 one. He asked me, What do you
see? I said, I see people of all countries, all religions. You come
here. Said, My son, mankind is one single nation.
The God of all mankind is one. We just call him by different names,
any teacher, any preacher, any rabbi, any Shrek, any Imam, any
pastor who promotes violence, extremism, terrorism, the king of
people, confrontation and discord is not aware of God. Don't found
him. Any person of preachers, love, kindness and compassion is a
man of God following I was thrilled and amazed at that kind
of philosophy. I fell in love with it.
You will help all people of all races, of all colors, of all
classes, of all religions, of all
cultures, of any geographic location and of any political
affiliation, but you will have them unconditionally. You will not
expect anything in return, not even a thank you. Serve the people
what love but kindness, but compassion and mercy and remember
the dignity of men is foremost. So if someone is down in the ground,
don't push them down, hold them and lift them up, to wipe the tear
from a crying child, to curse the head of an orphan, to speak words
of good counsel to a widow. These are all meritorious acts, to
provide food for the hungry, water for the thirsty, and clothe the
naked. These are all the kind of things that you will do, and
remember that whatever you do be the best at what you do, not for
ego, but because you're dealing with human emotion, human feeling,
human suffering and human life.
I acknowledge, I look at myself and I realized the kind of things
that I have done is not evenly possible. There has to be a bigger
hand helping you. There's your support staff. There has to be a
team. There has to be people around you, reassuring. What
hasn't achieved is not humanly possible. The amount of time that
you've done it and the kind of things that you've done, and he
always said to me, he said, My son, he was having 1/3 time for
yourself, 1/3 for your work, and 1/3 for your family. And every
time I looked at him and I laughed, I said, Teacher, that's
impossible. Four thirds are taken up by the work because it's so
busy and so much things to deal with. But yes, I'm pretty
satisfied. And what you asked me to do, and I saw a fruitful and
mandate after now you
a teacher passed away in 1999
but before he passed on, he told me, my son, in everything that you
do, he will know the right people will come to you, and they will
come from all over the world to you. You don't have to look for
money. Money will find you. All those words came true by
inspiration. People come, and I realized that this person is the
right person. We don't have the dollar system of advertising. And
say, please, you got a job? Can you please come? People will walk
into my office, and most of my staff have come that way. Somebody
came to me and said, Look,
they came for Sadat to the office for some counseling or something,
to the office, and someday the lady will speak and see what did
the job. I was working somewhere. I lost a job. Can you consider me?
We were growing very slowly? No. And also very strict about the
amount of staff they take. And I look at the person mark and say,
What? Give the person a chance. And the person that started to
date from 1992 to now. So only two staff that have left for some
other reason. They moved town and moved somewhere else. Nobody has
left. You to figure everybody has been there. And they work with the
heart and soul. And I tell him very clearly when you come here,
you don't want for money. You work with your heart and your soul. If
you can't work with your heart in your soul. You can get a much
bigger salary somewhere else, because we are an NGO. You can get
much better times, no after hours, no weekends, you will be much
happier. And if you come for money, and whoever comes there now
in December, when you close, they say, why have you closed? We're
not still happy at home. We want to work
in the 24 year period in South African brands. I mean, our money
is not strong, but in South African brands, we virtually
delivered 2 billion rand in eight to 42 countries, South Africa
included. And remember, we haven't gone up to Asmaa. We haven't made
proposals. We haven't approached government. We haven't approached
corporates. We announced, yes, what we do. And remember this
largely, 99% of South African audience, of which 50 million
people know their means. In this country, it's very limited amount
of people who really do have means. And those limited amount of
people have sort of carried us over these 24 years. And all my
heads off to all of them.
I'd like to see African NGOs become self reliant, self
sufficient. I'd like to see progress in water. Coming to the
African continent means water. It needs agriculture, it needs
education, it needs entrepreneurship, it needs
fighting disease, and it needs more.
Of free thinking, to move away from corruption, to move away from
conflict drivers conflict, to walk away from Indonesian conflict
between different tribes, to be better understanding, better
relationship between tribes. And with that kind of understanding,
we have probably the biggest amount of resources in the world,
in this continent that we can use for the benefit of upgrading the
continent. We are not short of resources. We are short in terms
of our thinking. And if you change the mindset the African NGOs, who
can be advisors to government, advisors to industry, can bring
about a massive change in the thinking, the application and the
development of the continent. The skills are there. I mean, Africa's
biggest export, the medical people, nurses, doctors,
accountants, engineers, teachers, and if everything was such a
stupid continent, why would the rest of the world grab them? We
have them, but there is no opportunity for people to stay in
continent and enhance their own countries. I would like to see all
the expected to come back and, you know, and governments to be more
open and better democracy and better involvement for dealing and
we can change. It's not impossible. We can change the
lives of 1 billion people on this project. We almost there,
in this world that is so polarized with so much of conflict between
different cultures and religions, for everybody to stand together
say you are my brother and holding each other's hands and going out.
And we've achieved that. You know, when the teams leave South Africa,
when we respond to a disaster, when we get to other countries,
people of all religions get confused. They cannot understand
how Christians use Muslims, Hindus, black, white, Indian can
stand together as one song that and everybody is there for each
and other. When we work in a war zone or an earthquake or anywhere
else, understand like one brotherhood but absolute love and
encourage everyone respect each other. We pray to the same God. We
are the same mission. We are there to protect each other. We are
there to work with each other, and we are there, above all, to serve
the needs of those people who need us most, being the refugees or the
recipients or the victims of a disaster. And you find people will
comment. They said, How long do these 60 or 80 people know each
other? We'll say they met. Many of them met each other for the first
time today. The comment would be, we would say they know each other
for 10 years. That's the kind of harmony we build for each other.
So that is my greatest achievement. And many people say,
if anybody can bring people together, you guys can.
They must have integrity. They must have honesty. They must be
transparent. They mustn't say something and do something else.
And you have to lead by example. And again, I use my own case. When
we go to a disaster zone, people ask my team members,
nice of you. I'm sure the manager is very busy at home in this
country. They say, No, he is a manager, and they'll see me
picking up a sack of minutes or less. They say, he can't be the
manager. Managers don't come to disaster zones. They sit in the
office and they send other people. So they say, No, they can't do it.
They are lying. This is not a manager. And if you want anything
done, you'll do it first. That's how the organization grew. I put
the effects paper in the machine. I put the paper on the wall. I did
the delivery. So every aspect of the organization you cannot be
every project is designed in ID, every the mechanics about the IT
guy, but I know how the people function. I'll read about it and
understand something to explain to me. Yes, I can't go. I've left
medicine in 94 but everything to do with medicine, I will learn.
All the new stuff, the new technology. I get people to brief
me, my medical teams advise me, and I will learn. But in
everything, I got to set the example first. When it goes to a
war zone, I take the highest risk. I go first alone to see what the
risks are, what networks we can build, how I can bring my teams in
and I come back, it doesn't send something else to take the risk,
and the first one in and the last one out. So you have to get
integrity. You have to be honest. You can be transparent. And people
have to see that there's sincerity. And you know, in the
way you operate, they must see the compassion in you. They must see
how you respect each other, the dignity, approval of people,
everything that we say they have to see that.
It means Africa is highly recognized. To me, this is the
opportunity to market, to showcase the continent, because we always
forgotten people, the Africans, as I mentioned earlier, can't do
anything. And there are people, you know, philanthropists, all of
the world, who really want to do for Africa, but they're scared to
come because they feel they cannot be trusted. Will it be corruption?
Will the money disappear? Will the goods be delivered? Is there
skills? Are the skills is the efficiency? Can the job get done
like the people from the Lord? Is it possible and being recognized
by a big company like Emily and partners, which is globally known,
which is linked to so many people, it's like being audited by a big
company in Europe, you know, and say, Look, we agree that these
people's books are clear, you know, we recommend supporting them
or giving them money. It's that kind of stamp. And what the media
coverage, what the.
Heading of the award by well known people. It just puts so much of
faith in other parts of the world, people to support Africa. Not this
the gift of the givers and myself, but to support Africa. So to me,
this is and that's the first thing I spoke about. The moment they
said, you know, you want the global award. I said at last,
something for Africa, because this continent needs all the support,
and we have very honest people in this in this continent. We just
need to find it. And you know, people who can deliver the job I'm
booked in many parts of the of the continent, in 22 countries, you
know, and we've done things, and we found people of integrity, and
that's why, how our projects get done. So yes, it's time asking the
world, please open your eyes and visit Africa and see we can do
things for you.
That we need to respect religions and colors across the world. We
need to respect that people had their own way of worshiping, their
own way of praying, their own way of dressing, their own way of
eating. But that doesn't change the intrinsic personality of a
human being eating in a different way, dressing a different way,
speaking a different way, doesn't change your personality and your
human emotion, because we all bring the same color. We all have
the same pain. Whichever religion or color or class or many
nationality belong to. If you lose a four year old child, you feel
the same pain to some in the north or something in the South. If you
have no food Dhani, you feel in law the same that you feel in the
south. So we need to understand and open our minds and not put
people in boxes. We look at the human being as a human being, and
forget all these different things that we have always black is
white. Is European, he's American, he's Jew, he's Christian, he's
Indian, he's Muslim. Now you know, we are different people. People
within our religions and our cultures do things which harm the
whole nation and harm an entire faith group, for that matter, an
entire culture or an entire government. Don't look at the
actions of one person or a group of people and say, everybody is
like that. Look at the overall actions of the whole group, or
study the teachings and the philosophy philosophies and say,
Look, I just want people bad. When the banking when the economy
collapsed and work and banking groups went down, do we say the
whole financial system is corrupt? When doctors Rob medical aids, do
we say it's very bad to be doctors, they're all corrupt. When
lawyers take people for a ride in terms of fraud in the type of
practice. Do they do to be said, all lawyers worldwide are corrupt.
You don't say that. We said the one law is corrupt. So we
identify, when it comes to the business world, a bad accountant,
a bad bank, a bad company, you know, bad practice of something.
We don't say everybody in the economy is bad. So why can't we
apply the same law for people within religion or a group or a
culture or society. If you look deep enough, you'll find us,
people who care, who have finished to bring people together. And I've
had that experience from all countries, there are more people
want to do good and support each other rather than take people
apart. So have an open mind and do things but remove stereotypes,
remove prejudice, remove polarized Thinking, and relook and re
examine and be mindful you.