Imtiaz Sooliman – KZN Floods Gift of the Givers’ on their work on the ground

The largest disaster response Non Governmental Organization. Gift of

the givers has been on the ground in KwaZulu Natal, providing

assistance to affected communities and providing aid. Let's get the

latest on the work that the organization has been doing in the

province. We're now joined via zoom by leader and founder, Dr

Emmett Suleiman. Always a pleasure to see you, sir. Thanks for

joining us here on sabc news.

Good afternoon. Thank you very much. So many, so many people have

faith in gift of the givers, and I'm sure you're very much aware of

that. Does it not add to some of the pressure you know that you

already as organization work under and where did you start when it

came to helping with the case that in blood?

Where did I start? Sorry, so my question is, many have faith in

your organization, in gift of the givers, as I'm sure you are away.

Is that not adding pressure to to the you know, the work that you're

already having to do? Does that not add pressure? And in my second

question is, where did you begin? When it comes to KZN as an

organization,

it doesn't add pressure flow. It's something that we've been doing

for a long time. Actually, it encourages us further, because it

shows over a period of 30 years, over a period of 30 years, people,

their support for us, has increased, and the fact that so

many people are supporting us is not actually adding pressure. It's

actually telling us that the people are satisfied with what we

doing, and that's why they're coming back to us. We we've given

it. We have a record of working in the country and outside the

country. We transfer transparent, we effective. And the advantage in

that, and even the huge support, has come, especially with the

current floods. When we moved on a Tuesday morning very quickly

into tongkat, where the first person space we went to that

person who passed on the granny with the three grandchildren she

had received a food parcel from us the week before. So when team

attachment to that place went to Tonga and helped all the

pensioners and the old people who are living, the friends where the

water raised one meter, what challenges would you say remain in

place at the moment, in providing assistance, and reaching out to

all the communities that need to be assisted. I mean, it's such a

very many people are needing assistance at this time, and one

wonders, you know where, where to even begin? Really

well, the challenge is just twofold. One is, the big challenge

right now is what you focus on is not about distributing anything.

It's about finding people.

People are distraught. They want to get their family members found

and buried, and that is proving a huge challenge, and the numbers

are not correct. Last week, you know, when we walked in the

different areas going to distributing items, and that

wasn't too bad, yet, some of the roads were closed that it takes

longer to get there. You do eventually get there, but it just

takes everything takes too long, but it's only a few places where

you can't get and we use helicopters to get to those

places. But whilst you're in the area, people are saying there's

two people missing under this building. Family members of mine

have disappeared. We haven't found the granny, we haven't found my

mother, we haven't found the uncle. And then one of my team

members was sitting on the it was was going to inland, and he saw

women sitting on the edge of the river, and he told them, but why

are you sitting here? It's dangerous. So they said, We are

hoping that the bodies of our family members will watch down and

we will catch them and we can bury them. Because at that point that

we realized this was far more serious than we knew that the

amount of people starting to miss it was becoming consistent. That

is too many, and that's when you put up search and recovery teams,

not rescue you can't rescue anybody. Now, similarly, at the

same time the other provinces put up the rescue teams too, or a

search teams. And then we said, where do we start? So we sent out

a message, and we said, Do you does anybody have a missing family

member? Or do you know of anybody that's missing? In a short space

of time, we started getting full descriptions, three children here,

five family members there, six family members there, three year

three there. By this morning, when I tallied up all that messages,

there's 237

people missing, and I think there's many more that we haven't

had feedback from. And then we went to the areas and trying to

assist. What all the teams is not only give for the givers, it's

everybody together trying to find and recover bodies. There's two

big problems. One is lots of bodies, and advanced stage of

decomposition, you can't identify them. And secondly, to get to them

is a big problem, because there's a lot of mud and a lot of rubble,

and the the big equipment can, can't get in. So that's proving to

be a huge challenge. And now, the sun coming out like it is today,

and it stays hot like this, we're going to get many more bodies

decomposed very, very fast. Uh, you know, some.

Some areas are more affected than others. And I'm just interested to

know, you know, where gift of the givers is concentrating most of

its work. Where have you seen that you really are needed? I mean, you

know, obviously it's devastation, and really, many parts of KZN are

affected, but where have you really seen the terrible word to

use? But where have you seen the hot spots? As to where you need to

be?

The hot spots are three. Well, you need to be everywhere, because

there's people scattered everywhere. But the biggest

destruction and the biggest loss of life is in inanda mulveni and

doesn't hook in Pine town. Those three areas seem to have the

biggest loss of life, the area that we haven't been to yet to

scout properly, we just sent photo. Helicopter was through the

an area in the valley of 1000 hills, but speaking to some people

who inside there, said it was horrendous. The big boulders

started moving down the mountain and smashed into people's homes,

and then smashed the homes into the water, and people drowned like

that. And earlier in the week, last week, they managed to take to

take some of the bodies home, and they managed to take some of the

injured people to hospital. But they said there's quite a few

people missing the area, and they said the destruction is quite

severe. We're hoping to get in now, because one of the roads has

opened up, but the person who called me yesterday, who initially

told me about it, he said, Look, the destruction is severe here,

and for six days from Monday night from Sunday, those people didn't

receive any assistance because we couldn't get in. There was no

roads. So that's an area that has been badly affected, and we send

the helicopter or supplies to that area. But from the pictures and

from the feedback in Nana, which leads to mulveni, which leads to

this area in 1000 value or 1000 years, they very, very badly

affected. And even doesn't hook but wide bank and parts of point

out the other areas, yes, there's flood damage in comes into in Port

chipston, central Dublin, party road has been badly hit. Informal

settlement there, reservoir Hill look like it has hit by an

earthquake, you know. But there's, fortunately, not lots of, not

many, lots of lives there. There's a child missing and an elderly man

missing in Anne road. Two people are missing there, other than

that, in in the other big challenge, of course, is the

absence of water. There's not enough water. We're getting calls

from hospitals. They can't watch the patients, they can't feed the

patients, they can't give them medication, and more and more

calls are coming from hospitals. They can't use the toilets. It's

becoming a hygiene and an infectious problem, and we're

trying to deliver water to the hospitals. Then the community is

called to say we don't have water. So it's becoming a challenge to be

in so many places at the same time, but you can't use big

trucks, so it takes longer because they get stuck in the road, and

you're spending more time actually, we be in and out of

traffic. They're actually doing distribution. So those are all the

challenges. It does get done, but just everything takes longer.

Yeah, and, and, I mean, a lot of the focus is, you know, in KZN,

but you know, the reality, of course, is that other provinces

have also experienced flooding, and there's been loss of live

lives there as well. How are you reaching out to those areas? And

you know, and you know you're talking about, you know, some of

the things that are requested from you, those things require money.

And I wonder, if you're getting, you know, enough assistance,

enough donations, and how people who are willing and wanting to, in

fact, help gift of the givers Can, can indeed do so.

We're involved in Eastern Cape also. We got called a few days ago

when the flood said, there in Port Edward, you know, we were called.

Then we were there early in the morning. MSC was there. Kalani

Mata was there in the morning with us. And, you know, we assisted the

people in the in the Eastern Cape. So far, we've got one big part of

our drowning. Also, that same system, we got one message, one

person is missing, and we've been involved there. And at the same

time, we've been involved with the fires in Langa also, there's three

areas we've been involved. We have reserves, you know, we we stock up

on supplies for a long period of time. But the public has been

absolutely generous. I must say, the South African public has made

this very, very personal. Every province has made this a personal

issue. South Africans and kzn anitas, they're not KZN. They all

of South Africa, you know, it is not regarded as a separate

province. You can see the love that's coming through from

throughout the country, people wanting to do something. The

corporates have come forward. In fact, on Monday night, when the

rain came, the first calls we got were not from people needing help,

help. It was from corporate saying, What can we do to help?

And they've been excellent in coming forward. We're busy with

agreements with them, but on the radio, on your television

channels, your radio programs. People throughout South Africa,

everybody is driving the campaign. Everybody wants to do something.

Even small organizations in the areas where people have been

affected, they've come forward. They've been very, very good,

providing hot meals. Volunteers have been coming. People have been

bringing in. It's just a mass movement of South Africans showing

the spread of Ubuntu to help fellow South African Alright,

Doctor. Mija Suleman, thanks very much for talking to us, and

certainly good luck with the work that you're doing. And I'm sure

you can get back on the road. I know we disturbed your work for a

moment there, and thanks indeed for giving us that conversation.