Imtiaz Sooliman – NGO Gift of the Givers commemorates 30 years of existence

So this month, non governmental organization, gift of the givers

commemorates 30 years of existence. For three decades, the

NGO has been on call for various disasters, from fires and drought

to humanitarian relief in war zones and natural disaster sites.

We're joined by the founder, Dr Imtiaz Suleiman to reflect on the

three decades of existence. Dr Suleiman, good afternoon to you,

and thank you very much for availing yourself. Perhaps just

take us back to 30 years ago when this was an idea. How did it all

start?

Good afternoon. Thank you very much. It never was. My idea before

this is not my organization. I don't get up one morning and say,

I need to form an organization. I need to get some members. I need

to write a constitution. I need to write down some funding

principles. It never happened like that. It's it's a very spiritual

basis and a very spiritual origin. I met a spiritual master whom I

was told about in the early in the late 80s, based in Istanbul, in

Turkey. And that was in 1986 when I was told about that master. And

I thought to myself, when will I will end up in Turkey? But I was

just on a visit. I went there 91 I met him for the first time. And

then in 92 on the sixth of August, coinciding with six of August, the

last week 30 years ago, it was a Thursday night at 10pm he suddenly

looks me in the eye from the corner of the room, and he says,

in true and Turkish. I don't speak a word of Turkish, but I

understood every word he said. He said, My son, I'm not asking you,

I'm instructing you to form an organization.

The name in Arabic will be wakul Wafi, yourself, all people of all

races, all religions, all colors, all classes, all cultures, of any

geographical location and of any political location, but you will

serve them unconditionally. You will expect nothing in return, not

even a thank you. This is an instruction for you for the rest

of your life. And remember, whatever you do is done through

you and not by you. This was very spiritual

with every high call to service. It's not easy, right? So the road

will be paved sometimes with very fiery stones, if you will just

talk us through some of the most challenging times, and whether at

some point you thought, no, maybe, maybe this is not for me.

No, no, yes, it was. It's always challenging. You know, we

understand that. He said, from the beginning, you said, you have a

lot of challenges. And in fact, the first project we undertook was

a civil war in Bosnia. The same month, August, 22 we responded

with 32 containers of aid into a war zone. And in November, we went

with another eight containers of eight. And the following year, we

designed the world's first and only containerized mobile

hospital, a product of South African technology, built in

Africa, taken into Europe. I was obstructed for 20 weeks. Hospital

into Bosnia, there was obstruction from every quarter. And you know,

some people said, You know what, you've tried, it's okay. You've

done the effort. Leave it be, take it somewhere else. And I said, No,

people are in difficulty. We are dying. They need health services.

I can't stop it's not in my nature to give up things in mind, in my

vocabulary, there's no such word as can't, and that carries

throughout the entire organization. We don't understand

the word can't, and we and if you on the other side, and you think,

if you and your family side, you know you would expect people to

respond to you. So we can't turn back. So Bosnia was a good

challenge. The war in Syria was a challenge. The hunger in Somalia

and the fiction and the fighting taking place while you're trying

to deliver aid in Somalia was a challenge. In Haiti, they were

shooting in the streets and looting, and there's a death

everywhere. So many 1200, 50,000 people had passed on. In Pakistan,

we couldn't get into the mountains without helicopters. People had

died everywhere. So it's emotionally and physically

draining, but our teams are well trained in advance to expect this

kind of crisis and to respond to it. In South Africa, of course,

the big challenge, that was the longest challenge ever, a

disaster. You know, it takes 710, days to respond to, but covid took

almost two years, and it had a draining effect on all members of

our team. You know, their families, people involved in

hospitals, so it was a tough time. But because we know this process

so well, everybody stood together and supported each other all the

time, speaking of your team. So you met the alchemist, and you

heeded the call. To some degree, you are the alchemist to some

members of your team. What is it that you think draws people to the

organization and makes them stay?

It's got to do with the spiritual nature of the people that come to

our organization. It draws people of various religions, of different

colors, of different races, of different cultural groups, and

they all come with one single minded purpose, how to help people

in to help themselves, how to assist people. How can we make a

difference? And they prepare to sacrifice their own lives. They go

into war zones. They prepare to sacrifice their families. They.

Their children, and they are driven by this passion to when

have other people. And it's that same group of people that have

gone into war zones that drove the processes in the South African

hospitals in covid It's liked by the people. What a shared

spirituality, who have a love for people, and they respond in the

most incredible way, totally selfless. And they just, in fact,

so much so that when we were in Syria, people

asked us, you know, because, remember, the things I things are

involving. It's not, this was not the same people all the time. New

people coming all the time. I mean, when Syria the medical guys,

they developed many, you know, because they all were many were

killed, so they were few, and they needed support. And they asked,

How many years have you guys been working together, and that team

was a fairly new team, and most people had never met each other

before, and we said we've met each other, most of us for the first

time here, they said, We line. It's impossible. How can people

work with such unity and understanding having worked

before? It's a spirituality, the kind of thought processes that

make us work together, think together. Think together. You know

exactly what we're going to do next. Is this space for other

organizations to do the work that you do? And is there space for

collaboration?

There is enough space. The world is full of crisis right now.

There's not enough people to do the crisis, you know, to deal with

the crisis. There's work, yes. So there's enough space for

everybody. There's so many diverse areas your program talking about

energy. I mean, energy is a huge problem in this country and

throughout the world because of the crisis now in Ukraine, yes,

hunted throughout Africa. There's drought in Somalia this you know,

there's people who need skills. There's a shortage of skills.

There's medical support required. People need psychological support

in the country, in the continent and throughout the world, there's

human trafficking. There's people who've lost the path we need to be

guided right. People that have been taken, you know, by drugs,

drug traffickers, you know, or drug dealers. People getting lost.

People have to be assisted in terms of the difficulties they

have. And people have to be guided to move away from the kind of

things that cost half the fellow being. Also, people get involved

in wars and instigate wars. They have to be taken away. So they

require spiritual interaction. It requires a human interaction. It

requires assistance from a physical point of view and an

emotional point of view. We do collaborate with other

organizations, but in when I say that, when we go to a disaster

area, we see what they're doing so we don't encroach on the same

area. We say, Okay, you guys take straight you guys are doing street

A, we will do street B. And they will come and say, We need this

machine. Can you help us? We'll say, Yes, we have a spare one. You

can have it. And they will come to us and say, you know, we have this

medication. We don't require it anymore. Can you take it? So it's

an understanding that we work with each other, but still separately.

Fair enough. Dr Suleiman, who

helps the helper, who guides, the guide of lack of a better word,

who counsels the counselor. What fills your cup?

We have our own counseling division. If Dr givers has 21

different categories of projects, you know, and each category has

its own, different subcategories. Counseling is one of the main

parts of gift of the givers.

We have our counseling team, we have trauma counselors, and we

have abundant psychologists in the country wanting to work with us at

any time. The strange thing is that none of the health care

workers ever ask for counseling, even though they may need it, but

especially again, when we're in difficult situations, they sort of

get together, make jokes, laugh, relieve the pressure. Even in a

war zone, they talk to each other and have an affinity with each

other, where they talk the issues away and they find solace in the

team itself. The comfort comes from the team itself. The other

important thing that I do, although, as I said, we have

houses on standby, available anytime they want it, we even make

them available, but most of them don't take that, you know, that

offer, except now during covid itself, for the first time, I've

seen huge numbers of healthcare workers, not necessarily my team,

but a huge number of healthcare workers saying they need mental

health, mental support. The crisis has been too huge. It's affected

in a bad way. They need health. Is there a workshop? Is there some

yoga? Is there some kind of mindfulness or some kind of

meditation? People need that. So, you know, there's been a huge

request for that. And the other thing that we do, I always train

them. I always speak to them. And if I tell them, You guys have all

heard the word social distancing, but belong before social

distancing, I should teach them about emotional distancing, that

you don't attach yourself to a situation, a person, a child or an

adult. You can feel compassion for the conditions of the people, but

don't attach yourself to anyone personally, the moment you do

that, it will affect you and you're not going to go to work

emotional distancing. Dr MTS Suleiman is founder of gift of

forgiveness. We celebrate 30 years a big congratulations to you, and

thank you very much for availing yourself. You.