Imtiaz Sooliman – News 24 Live

Music. Morton, author of imtia Suleiman, and gift of the givers

is Joining me in studio now he's going to introduce us to his book.

Welcome. Thank you, Jennifer, thank you for sitting down with me

now. This book documents the work the gift of the givers has done

directly from the beginning. Why don't you introduce me to how it

came about? Why did you sit down and write this story? Well, the

reason I sat down and write it was because I was asked to write it. I

got a reason, a very good reason. Yes, in fact, I got a telephone

call from the publisher, Louis Grantham from bookstores

publications, at the end of last year, and she said, you know,

we're going to be doing a book on gift of the givers. And she put Dr

Suleiman on the line. Now, I've known Dr Suleiman for more than 20

years, and he said, Shafik, we are going to be doing this book, and

I'm requesting, can you write the book now, Dr Suleiman has got two

tones of voice. One is pass me the salt, which means you don't really

have to and the other one is pass me the salt, which means you

better do it. You better do it. Yes, so I got the message. But on

a more serious note, it was actually, it was a bolt from the

blue, but it was actually something very exciting, because

give to the givers is Africa's biggest aid organization,

homegrown South African aid organization. It's done 41

missions in overseas countries to the tune of 1.2 billion rand, and

runs 21 local projects. That's just the tip of the iceberg. So

for me, it was something big. It's a big organization, and it was a

big opportunity. Now, we often hear about gifted givers working

overseas, but in fact, they do a lot of work here in South Africa,

and that's documented in the book. Can you tell me about the story

that sticks up most for you that you wrote in here about a mission

that was done right here in South Africa? Well, in fact, there's so

many things. I mean, there's so many projects. There's the

Adelaide Tambo special school. It was a dying wish of Adelaide Tambo

that this school stay and be maintained and give to the givers.

Took upon her dying wish and to this very day, give to the givers.

Is one of the main donors to the Adelaide Tambo special school in

Soweto. That's just one example. There's also the sibusisu project,

which is a special nutritional food that is manufactured in

Malawi using African products for Africans, which is a revolutionary

product, and people can take it and it gives you nutrition. It

stops starvation. They call it a wonder food. It is a wonder food.

And this is just something else that sticks in my mind now, for

everyone watching this video, what do you hope they take away from

this book? Well, what they must take away from the book? Number

one, this is a South African story. It's a good South African

story. It's a story of optimism, and it's a story of what can be

done, as opposed to what can't be done. Shafiq, thank you so much

for introducing us to the book and sitting down with me. You can get

MTS, sillyman and gift of the givers at all good bookstores you.