Imtiaz Sooliman – More aid for drought stricken communities
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The speakers discuss the shortage of water and the difficulty in obtaining it, as well as the desperation of people in drought-impunging communities. The government has made arrangements to collect food and hygiene supplies, but some communities require assistance. The speakers acknowledge that there is a need for assistance in certain areas, but it depends on the area and needs to be balanced. They also discuss the need for healthcare services and support for hospitals and businesses, as well as the use of cultural gardens for food security.
AI: Summary ©
Welcome back. Gift of the givers is reaching out to more drought
stricken communities. The organization will this week be in
the Aberdeen community in the Eastern Cape. It's planning on
drilling boreholes at hospitals to assist struggling communities form
on this I'm joined by Dr MTR Suleiman from gift of the givers,
thanks for your time. So let's talk about this program that
you've basically gone on to help communities affected by droughts.
Is this an indication that government is not doing enough
well? It's it's an ongoing problem we've discussed as a government
man many times. Good evening, Sean and to the viewers. It's an
ongoing problem that we discussed for quite some time, what's the
government and the municipalities? The problem seems to be that, who
takes responsibility? Where is the ninth National Water Department?
What is probio? Where does the municipality? The municipality
themselves? You know, everyone you call have no funds, and you know
we have a very good relationship, all of them in Eastern Cape, and
they come back with the same story. They said, Look, we just
don't have the means to drill these balls. And those that did
drill balls, the costing was, what was enormous. Some money some of
them paid was quite ridiculous. And also, in many times, water did
not come out, come out from those balls. Here at the moment,
municipal water tankers are taking waters from the balls that we've
drilled, and in time, you already make a plan to pass our balls onto
them so the municipality can have better responsibility for the
balls. But yes, there seems to a serious issue in terms of vortex
responsibility. I will be with the water affairs minister next week,
Friday in Adelaide. We will be discussing the different issues
related to water in the Eastern Cape. But right now, we get calls
on a daily basis from hospitals, from schools, from communities
there's no water. We've drilled many, many more, and from next
week again, we're going to be drilling many more, but mostly in
hospitals. This time.
Talk to me about the desperation of people in these communities,
and whether you feel as gift of the givers that they've been
ignored and you're the only source of hope and help that these people
will have,
I would say they ignore. You know, the reality is that people have I
mean, the government has come to us. Different departments have
come first, and the communities have come first, directly, and the
same story, we don't have the budget on Wednesday. I mean, just
a few days before that, farmers from the Aberdeen area came to us.
They said, look, there's no more money left. All the overdraft is
maxed. Cards are mixed. We can't have we don't have any income
anymore. We're in serious trouble. Can you provide food parcels for
the farm workers, those that work for us and for us as farmers, as
for our families. We don't have any food, and we can't even come
to you to collect the food. We can't put fuel into our vehicles.
So can we come? Can you come to us? So on Wednesday, you know, we
took a truckload of food stuff and hygiene packs to the farmers in
Aberdeen, and they cater for the farm, the farm workers and the
farmers in the area. This is a direct request from them, you
know, directly from the farmers. And they came to see us in
crafting it, which is the closest region to them. So they itself.
There was huge desperation. Then came Thursday. First was now
government destination. In the week, we were getting calls from
CEOs of hospitals throughout the Eastern Cape saying, we are
totally desperate. We don't have a simple thing like adult diapers,
children diapers. We don't have London savers. We don't have PPE
for the hospital, for the doctors. We don't even have food to feed
our patients. Can you please help? And we made arrangements, you
know, and for them to come to us to save time. And on Thursday, 34
hospitals and 19 clinics came to collect to fall what I've just
mentioned. The good thing was that a st Cape government fully
endorsed it. And to show the appreciation, the premier sent us
a message to say, thank you very much. The Embassy for health can
directly herself to the distribution also spoke to all. In
fact, CEOs themselves came and they knew the embassy was coming.
Doctors came from hospital, and all used our our facility as a
means to discuss the problem. And it comes down to, again, there's
no budgets, but there's a huge need and huge desperation.
Actually, when you're calling us, the CEOs were crying on the phone.
That's how this distribution was.
Wow. It's so sad to hear that. And I understand government, of
course, saying they've run out of funds, but it basically points to
a failure of delivering services. Suleiman, when you decide who to
help, because I'm sure you get people from across the country
saying, we're struggling, we need assistance. How does that process
work for gift of the givers?
Well, let's do this two to three ways for that one is, you know,
who calls in first, which area is more affected than the others. And
in this case, most of the pods have been coming, please, okay,
and especially with the drought chicken issues and the farmers.
And thirdly, it depends on where the donors want to put their
money. For example, with the case that and several unrest, the
donors will say, okay, he has money. We want the food parcel. So
we want this set in the other.
But we wanted in this particular areas, especially where the
businesses are, where the companies are. So it's a balance
of, you know, where you have the leeway to do what you want in any
area. And also way of as prescription, where donors want
the stuff in a certain area. But then you come to some kind of
balance and say, Look, we can give you three quarters of what you
want, but quarter we need somewhere else. And also we would
tell them, look like your four other companies want the same
place. We can't put all the stuff in the same place. We need to
separate it and put some other areas. And that's what happens for
the Eastern Cape itself. We have been having the full discussion
what to do, and because we've been following up from 2019 since we've
been there, and we had a major intervention with covid 19 with a
drought. And we know where the board requires that, because over
the months, it's not like we got a call last week. The call has been
coming for some time now, and you know, and we say, Look, you on the
queue, and if one becomes available, we will put it in your
area of need. And what we're trying to do is whether, when you
put it in schools and hospitals, we then support the institution.
But also we put taps outside the gate, outside the fence, where the
people in the community won't impinge on the hospital or the
school, but still have access to the water. You were talking
specifically about water. We also put up a cultural gardens to
support food security, and that we doing mainly in schools. And of
course, hospital support is ongoing. It's been going on from
the beginning of covid. And we know the hospitals, because we
know every CEO individually, we've assisted nationwide 210 hospitals
in the country, and that's what PPEs, scrubs, pulse oximeters, you
know, non protect thermometers, visual angloscopes and a frost
from the solidarity fund, we put in 3000 CPAP machines, which are
oxygen oxygen delivery devices in hospitals, and these are life
saving, yeah, alright. Thank you so much for the good work you're
doing. Appreciate your time. Dr Imtiaz Suleiman from gift of the
givers.