Imtiaz Sooliman – Kendra Gardens Retirement Home Phase 2 inaugurated of Gift the Givers
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AI: Transcript ©
Thank you very much
for
to say,
Give us A second. Give us a second.
I
five minutes for the formalities. Thank you everyone for being here.
We really appreciate it. The rest of the people are waiting for us
too, and we welcome
brother, who we are proud of and we really admire, and we try to
follow in a Small
steps,
and Mrs. Suleiman
speak, man, I just
started, try to bring order.
Really appreciate your presence today, and we are grateful to
Almighty for making all this possible for all of us. You are
really inspiring for all of us. If we can do one question of you,
what
we do?
We just go slow
and you can look this way. Just post
cutting it up.
One second, just pose, just pose,
just pose for us.
We'll tell you when we're ready.
Okay, you guys ready?
Okay, I think we're ready now
on 321, go.
Just one second. Give us a second.
So there you can go. More in.
Come on. Okay? Yes,
okay, you want to go slowly now? You guys ready?
Another step forward.
That's
it.
Signatories
of
also
gives me great pleasure, ladies and gentlemen, to say a few words
about this very special gentleman with us here this evening,
Donte Suleman commence private practice in Peter marisburg in
1986
but chose to close his flourishing practice in mid 1994
choosing instead to focus his attention on gift of the givers
Foundation, which he had founded in early August of 92
his establishment of the gift of the givers Foundation was a
consequence of a message Dr Suleiman, then age 30, had
received from his spiritual leader in Istanbul, Turkey, who called
the name to serve all people of all races, all religions, all
colors, of all classes, of all political affiliation.
Is and of any geographical location, a calling he honored
then, and continues to honor today. His endeavor in this regard
has seen gift of the Guinness foundation emerge as one of the
most respected humanitarian organizations in the world, and is
today the largest disaster response agency of African origin
anywhere on the continents.
Since 1992
Doctor Sullivan has steered the organization to many notable
achievements in world firsts, including the implement
implementation of 21 different categories of projects, delivering
one excessive 4.5 million Rand of aid coming to the citizens of
millions of people in no fewer than 45 countries across the
globe, inclusive of South Africa,
designing and developing in 1993 the world's first and only
containerized mobile hospital of its kind, which is deployed,
deployed in Bosnia and has been prepared by CNN to any of the best
hospitals in Europe, deciding the world's first containerized
Primary Health Care Unit in 1994
innovating the world's first grande soya, high energy emotes,
supplements, known as civil society surrounding food
supplements, the supplements is proved ideal for People suffering
from such conditions as HIV and AIDS, TB, malnutrition, cancer and
other debilitating disorders, and
heading the first organization in the history of South Africa to
receive 16 million Rand from government for the design and
success of rollouts of more than 204
million food parcels. Ladies and gentlemen, it gives me great
pleasure now to call upon our next awardee for this evening, Dr ntiaz
sila. Let's give him a huge
round of applause. You.
We have a lovely wife of Dr Diaz Suleman with us here this evening
as well. So we have a very special presentation for her. This is
obviously because it was Mother's Day just the other day, and we'd
like to give a very special bouquet from Mrs. Sirosh Bengals
ladies Jan requests for Mrs. Suliman to join us on stage. You
Well, thank you for being with us this evening. So ladies and
gentlemen, okay, we're going to get a few words from Mrs.
Suleyman, and I think we're going to also have a photo opportunity
with all the awardees on stage in a short while. So, ladies and
gentlemen, firstly, let's give a huge round of applause for Lastly,
and
J Sri Krishna, ladies and gentlemen, I'm so humbled to be
here this evening.
Firstly, I must apologize for my dress code. We are having a
medical conference next weekend, so I've been up and down between
Devon and East merits for today, and I didn't expect
the function to be of this nature, but I'm so humbled, and my journey
started with the Gujarati community as a scholar back in
primary school, so coming here today makes me feel like I'm at
home. I know so many faces that are present here today, and I just
want to say thank you so much for honoring my husband.
My, my our daughter is here with us.
It was so nice when I walked in and I met Dr devji. She was head
of department at Ellington when I worked there. She's somebody that
we hold so close to our hearts. My principal, from German girl
secondary, is sitting at the table behind me. I don't think she
remembers me, but I said to each by that that was my principal when
I schooled at Girls High going back to primary school, I schooled
in surajndu, and I was part of the saka Mali because of all my
Gujarati friends. So I just want to say thank you, and what you are
doing for the boundary. It really and truly warms my heart on
Mother's Day intima to see our own mothers and we stopped at the old
age home, and it really saddened us to see that there were so many
mums at the old age home that were sitting there the kids have not
visited them. So what's happening here really just warms my heart,
because it's actually not an old age home. It's a home away from
home, and it allows the elderly to feel loved and to feel
appreciated. Because, you know, we have to go by our book, it says
Martha pita, Guru Dev, you honor your mother, your father, and then
we get to see God. And in Islam, we believe that the gateway to
Heaven is under the feet of our mothers. So it truly warms my
heart today to be here and to see so many faces. Thank you so much
for honoring my husband in tears and myself, we feel so loved and
so pleased. Thank you so much.
Be with us here this evening. We really do appreciate you being
with us and spending the evening with us. Ladies and gentlemen,
we're going to have that photo up on stage right now with all the
awardees, and then we'll get to hear from Dr FDR cinema, okay,
Mr. Cinema, I'm going to request for you to Return to stage, please
For this world birth.
The
President people
from Indian Council, very much for inviting me to speak again today.
It's a great feeling being here, and wonderful what to achieve, to
observe such great achievements. Thank you for this award. Deeply
appreciate it
as I was watching the video that people were showing from the
beginning,
it emphasized to me how much we deserve culture.
But all the years, elderly people have made sure that those belong
and continue holding the community together
in our country and the way the world is developing, we need to
get the youth involved. But unfortunately, many of the youth
are losing their way, and with the community having traveling cycles
and events like we had in that program in a small video, is the
best way to guide our youth to this big plan and to get it
involved in community activity. What my wife said earlier is very
true. It's heartbreaking. People think that you set up nice
buildings for old people, but what old people really here for? But if
I get to that, I must congratulate you on the quality of the building
that you've put up, that you haven't spent any expense to take
care of people like I will take care of yourself in religious
terms and in human terms. We strive for excellence in
everything that we do, because it's our human dignity. But we
need to understand that all people's greatest need is a
companionship, and it's important that if they have those people in
the homes.
By the young people, family members. We need to visit them,
visiting them, giving them sight. Time is the best, the greatest
form of blessing and prayer. And I hope that young generations start
connecting with more people and showing that love and affection.
Because one day when I'm looking at these pictures again with the
old people. I think of the movie car waterhole.
We don't suppose tomorrow we're going to be like that too. We're
going to get old at some point, if we can drop there tomorrow. And
this video and this home is a clear indication, a reminder, that
the only thing in life is about doing good. There is no other
achievement. And before I give you some background or gift of the
givers, let me explain to you by classical example.
You see, when covid came,
everybody said it's a curse, it's a virus, it's a monster. We're
going to fight it. We're going to put in his place.
The cover is not a monster.
It's a virus created by God Almighty,
and he came to teach men lessons. It came to teach you about
awareness, about mindfulness, about God's grace, about
gratitude.
You see, you could have gone to the fun of the most expensive
hospital in the country, and you could have said, I have 2 billion
men in my account.
I know the President. I know the ancestor. I know the CEO of the
hospital. I know the Group CEO. I know this one and that one. I need
a bed or oxygen.
I mean, the hospital is full.
Your 2 billion men is not going to make any difference because
they're not going to get something after the bed and give you that
gap.
And all your skills and all your achievements and all your
acknowledgements, God shows you who is king that you are dropped
dead in front of that hospital with all your money.
Life is about service, and Hindu community talks about seva. There
is no greater blessing on Earth and achievement but yourself with
distinction. And I'm very, very proud of what you guys have done
here, not second grade, not cheap quality pundits of people you
don't even know who they are, what love and affection, that's a huge
source of blessing for you in the community. But the greatest
blessing we're going to get our youth involved and develop on us
so they don't lose the way. I met so many parents in the last two
weeks. They say, you have a liberation. We have to take care
of them. We don't know where they're going to they got their
own ideas. They're getting lost. We need to bring back the sense of
community. I covered a place called potassium, very small place
in the north tower in Northwest when we were small
and you were naughty.
The parents would come from something else and say, Mr. So and
So, your child is very naughty,
and your whole parent will tag that parent. Give you two shots.
Why? They will say that your child is my child.
We've lost that. We need to go back to community parenting. But
earlier, somebody spoke about ego. The ego is very, very destructive.
Today, you tell a parent, your child's body will carry a mind on
business,
that's a fact of life, and we destroy our community and the
values that we have. We need to go back to that very seriously. I
want to share with you my journey,
because everything you guys didn't award for shutdown, I'll
explain it your hand.
The English date of gift of the Divas is very close to your
foundation. Here. Yours was 93 we were sixth August 1992
official date, sixth, August, 1992
our focus on a concept called spirituality, gift from the givers
is not my organization. I don't get up on the morning and say,
Okay, today I think I form an organization. Give it a name, get
some founder members, write out the Constitution and do 1234, and
five. No, it never happened that way.
It is totally spiritual in the way it happened. And to me, the
spirituality started in 1985
I was a clear hospital doing internship here in German. And I
said to myself, when I finish internship next year, I'm going to
be a medical officer and after a registrar, and then under
specialist internal medicine, under uncertain position,
it never happened.
Nobody is to study, no opportunity. I couldn't go
forward. I had two choices, much like what some of many articles
have today were the current challenges we have. I could sit in
the corner and cry. I.
Need it and make our prayers and say, life is over and I'm going
to die over the breath. God has given us internal resilience. It's
given us faith. It's given us strength
and do something different. So according to Gd, practice
something and they want to do there, and they want to drop to
love, but life has to carry on. God has a very good reason why he
does certain things when we pray, we don't pray for what we want.
We pray for what is good for us, because what we want may not
necessarily be good for us, and
I understood that as a greater purpose why I did not become a
physician. So in January, 1986 I moved to marysburg.
I started practice at the same week, an African man from Pretoria
moves to marysburg.
My legal comes to me and said, I got this African guy. They came to
teach French at the University of Natal he needs a doctor in her
American problem, so me and Mala meet,
and after many three principally, one day, I need to share a story
with you, he said, I'm going to scholarship in America.
And one day, I was walking to the streets of America, aimless, sad,
dejected, heartbroken, stolen, empty, super and empty. I don't
know what the wrong word would mean,
and suddenly in the corner, I see a man looking at me. I look at men
I don't know him.
My heart tells me to follow the man.
We have a teaching, waiting, doubt, family situation, business
decision, anything when in doubt, look internally, follow your
heart, lock your head.
So I follow the man. And the man walks into St John the Divine, a
huge Church in New York which I visited on my way to the end of
the week.
And when he went, there he lies. The man is also attack.
And Muslim,
a Sufi master, a master of spirituality.
And when he gets in the church, this man suddenly starts making a
Ziggler in the church. In Islamic terminology, Zika is a separation
of God's names in Arabic. In other scriptures, we would say the one
and only kind, compassionate, merciful, loving, eternal,
absolute, traditional Sustainer. And so it goes. And he said in the
church, they were Jewish,
Christian priests, Hindu pallets, all people of faiths and people of
no faith,
and they all participated in the ceremony.
And that made me stand out and think
to see the elders in the cast of all religion understood the unity
of religion, the Unity of Mankind, that you all come from a single
nation. And real religion doesn't make conflict between people. It's
people who move away from religion that make conflicts
in a very same way,
in a very same way that lawyers can destroy your own accident
fund. You don't shut down the law profession. When doctors do
malpractice, you don't shut down the medical profession. So this
chaos religion. It's because people have moved away from what
is right. And just
one tells me, You need to go to Istanbul. That's 1986
so I tell him, Well, it's 1986 I still haven't seen Cape Town.
Whenever you see Istanbul, you
said something very profound. And we all believe in this. We said,
what God wants happens, there's a tie in place. And that time and
place was almost 21
post come home,
I go to the place. And what mother saw in New York, I saw in
Istanbul. What destroyed the church I saw in the Sufi place,
Jews, Christians, Hindus, Muslims, people of all religion and no
religion, Americans, Russians, people from India, Brazil,
Argentina, Mexico, Australia, Canada, Sweden, Norway, Denmark,
New York, Africa, all parts of nowhere. What was amazing, there
was no fiction,
no fighting,
no discord, no energy.
There was only one overriding factor,
and it was called
love. The real essence of religion is love, the
spiritual teacher, looking at faith without in shock. I couldn't
believe this. People of different faiths have formed all over the
world. What I didn't bring the same place together after the
Volvo,
he said, My son, what do you see? I said, I'm confused.
People of different religion, different facilities in the.
Same place defining all over the world, house is possible,
said my son.
You see right. Welcome to say mankind is one, single nation.
The God of all mankind is one. We just qualified as the names
any Imam, Priest, Sheik Sufi, whereby Pandit, who promotes
violence, activism, terrorism, Discord, conflict of
confrontation, is not a man of God. Don't follow him. Any
person that preaches love, kindness, compassion and mercy is
a man of God following we need to bring that back in our country and
our people. I go away. My heart gets to that place, six August, 92
because official date of gift of the evils, 10 o'clock at night,
Thursday after the session, again, the spiritual teacher just looks
up, makes eye contact with me. I look seven words at the same time,
influent jakish, and I don't speak about Turkish, but I understood
every single word that he said in jakish. He said, My son, I am not
asking you, I am instructing you to form an organization. The name
Arabic will be walkful, walking translated gift of the Divas. They
will serve all people of all races, of all religions, of all
colors, all classes, all countries, of any geographical
location and of any political affiliation, but you will serve
them unconditionally. You expect nothing in return, not in a thank
you. In fact, in what you're going to be doing for the rest of your
life, expect to get a kick up your back. If you don't get a kick up
your back, regard it as a bonus. Serve people with love, kindness,
compassion, and remember the dignity of man is foremost. What
you've done here is dignity of the people,
and we need to look after the dignity of people, because
tomorrow we can be the same place go with naked feet hungry, provide
water to the thirsty, and in everything you do, be the best at
what you do, like what you've done, yet not because of ego.
Ego destroys relationship between husband and wife, between parents
and children, between family members, between communities and
organizations and government and corporate companies and family
businesses, ego destroys that not because of ego, but because you're
dealing with human life, human emotion, human suffering and human
dignity. My son, this is an instruction for you for the rest
of your life.
And then came the most important message wise for the others,
remember, whatever you do
is done through you and not by you.
Whatever we achieve is by the Almighty's grace, not our
cleverness, His own, His blessing, his guidance. I'm in this business
for 30 years. What you guys think I do, I don't know.
It's not humanly possible in everything that people think that
we do, it's the hand of God Almighty that guides every single
aspect of what we
do. Ask the teacher,
how come I do speak Tarish, I understand, and I look at the
Scripture if I don't understand.
He said, My son,
when the hearts connect and the souls connect, the ones become
understandable.
I asked him, What am I supposed to do for what you told me, I'm a
doctor in private practice. I've got three surgeries in a place for
people matters, but in South Africa, what exactly am I supposed
to do?
He told me one line you will know for 30 years. I do know what to
do, how to do, what to touch, what not to touch. In fact, the moment
I wore out of that place on the sixth of August, 1992
it came to me respond to the civil war in Bosnia.
The same month, not even five months later, the same month
alone, I took in 32 containers of eight into a Mozart
three months later, in November, 1992 took the eight containers of
intelligence, and in 93 we designed the world's first
containerized mobile
hospital, a product of South African
engineering. As an aside from what I'm telling you.
You, how many of us believe in ourselves? How many of us believe
in our country? How many of us believe in the African continent?
We have great skills. We have great minds. We can fix anything.
And a few of examples, and I've stopped
you see, in 2010
when the earthquake hit, we send teams across day 8/20, January,
2010
we made one history,
memory, history of the world. Has anything from African continent
taken anybody out of the alive in an earthquake outside African
continent, in the collapsed Catholic Church? My teams went in
and they had sounds, and they pulled up a life, 64 year old, and
as a
first world work,
I love God. Doesn't matter what religion is. God is saying.
I love God Almighty. We install hope and faith into somebody
several 1000 kilometers away. The second words were, I love you. The
essence of religion is love.
And I'll finish off. What is last point
that skill,
compassion, care, professional surgical
you see in disasters, some people send tents, blankets, food,
medicines, bottled water, Secretary, beds, tigers and so
forth. Other people send primary health care, medical teams. Some
send trauma teams, trauma teams, winning Orthopedic Surgeon
General, surgeon, vascular surgeon, penisitors, theater,
nurse, ICU. Some people send post property hat, spinal injuries,
spinal substance pressures make people look at it. Some send
trauma counselors to have a post traumatic stress has grown and
everything else it happens. Some people send surgeon, desperate
teams. Some people send dogs. Some people send medical equipment.
Some people send certain history book. Some people rebuild their
clinics. Some people rebuild hospitals. Some people rebuild
houses. Some people restart agriculture in conflict zones.
Some is taken hostage. People do hostage negotiations with the only
team in the world that does all of their love us,
South Africans in our schools, our universities, our hospitals,
Hindu, Muslim,
all together, we are one team that goes across. Three women stand up
and one man stand out as a doctor sent out by teams. Doctor Abu
parai Sister, vascular surgeon in gate. Hospital. Doctor Kasi,
Governor OMG, specialist in Spain. Hospital. Doctor boggy, Governor
General, surgeon in period management in place hospital and
Dr amit ramchand, a specialist in Cape Town.
People like that, stand up and give service and bring life to
people who've got no hope.
And when we go there, they look at us. We've assisted people in 45
countries, when they look at us, they say, You guys are different.
When you ask them, in which way, they say, other teams come here.
They are loose.
They are ego. They are elephants. They don't touch out people. They
stand far. They look at us as some kind of plague. There's no
dignity, there's no respect, there's no love. But your teams
show love, compassion, kindness. They take our children there, what
their diagnosis. They hug them. They show up same kind words to
us. They give us a listening ear. They give us good treatment and
good medication, and they show us and treat us with dignity. May God
bless you and your country. May God bless all of you for what
you've done, financed and supported so all people who can
have a better life. We have a brain that paradise lies under the
feet of the mother, and we need to take care of the mother and a
special lessons to use. Don't lose the way, because tomorrow your
child will forget who you are. Thank you very much.