Imtiaz Sooliman – Speech Night 2023
AI: Summary ©
Dr. MTS Suman, a professional medical doctor, has created a foundation called the gift of the givers, which helps thousands of people affected by disaster in South Africa. He emphasizes the importance of faith and ethics in a spiritual path and offers advice on how to be grateful for one's achievements and not forget to be grateful for others. The success of the first airborne search and rescue operation, combined with the power of spirituality, makes it possible to match any aspect of the world in 15 seconds and set up a hospital in three hours. Dr. MTS Suman is thankful for his team's efforts and the importance of his spirituality in disaster relief.
AI: Summary ©
Thank you. Ethan,
Mrs. Javed, it is my pleasure to introduce our honored guest
speaker for tonight,
Dr MTS Suman qualified as a medical doctor at the then
University of Utah Medical School in 1984
that's the first line, and for most of us, that would be a
crowning achievement in our lives.
But it goes on after then experiencing a strong calling, he
gave up his career in medicine to pursue the field of humanitarian
aid, which for him, transcends the boundaries of race, religion,
culture, class and geography,
alongside his studies and medical work, and throughout his life, Dr
Suleyman has been involved in several associations, religious
organization and school governing bodies, progressively as a student
medical doctor and is an active member of civil society.
In 1992
he founded the gift of the givers Foundation, and has since then
delivered more than 5 million Rand over a 31 year period to 45
countries, including South Africa.
The gift of the givers. Foundation is the largest disaster response
Non Governmental Organization of African origin on the African
continent. It has developed into one of the most respected
international humanitarian agencies.
The organization is impartial and apolitical and aims to serve a
compassionate kindness and mercy, which reflects the remarkable
personal calling of Dr Suleman to serve people who need help with
love, compassion and dignity and expect nothing in return.
Through his work with gift of the givers. He and his teams have
responded to the needs of countless people affected by a
wide range of natural and man made disasters such as floods, famine,
tsunamis, earthquakes and walls.
He has facilitated the establishment of hospitals, run
clinics, created agricultural schemes, dug wells, built houses,
developed and manufactured in energy, food, renovated fishing
boats. Offered scholarships and provided food and shelter to
millions
when disaster strikes or pleas for assistance or sounding, whether in
South Africa, he and gift of the givers are ready with an immediate
response, swiftly rallying the organization's network of doctors,
nurses, relief workers and other professionals, and dispatching
humanitarian and medical supplies to disaster areas.
Dr sudeman says that he is driven by the same basic principles that
led him to becoming a medical doctor, respect, care,
professionalism and dedication.
But there's something else that fuels Dr suleman's passion for
humanitarianism, the solid belief in the common humanity that unites
us, his fervent belief in mankind is what really motivates and
energizes him, and the reason is his faith. He is indiscriminate
and proactive in his aid. And has said, You are human and I'm a
human I need to help you,
a recipient of many awards for his service to South African humanity.
Dr Suleyman, for his excellence and contribution through the gift
of the givers. Foundation to humanitarian aid in South Africa
and humanitarian relief missions in various countries, was
deservedly awarded by the President of South Africa, order
of the Bay of AB silver award in 2010
it is a testimony to his humility that a man so industrious and in
demand would come and Speak to us tonight and building Child Youth
and who better to give up gifts to our prize winners, we are honored
indeed to hear from a Special South African from our school
stage tonight, Dr ntsu,
thank you, Professor Jeff,
governing body, parents, teachers, family, thank you very much for
the invite.
Congratulations and just for a matter amount of achievements, for
what the principal is doing.
Out,
but to those kids who don't do that, well,
seven days, 10 days,
what's important is to bring the best you can, as long as you do
the best you can, that's important.
And with that, you'll find a life that you'll find a patient that
you really love a special message to parents, don't force your kids
to do what you wanted to study, especially when you go to
university. That's a big mistake many parents make when there's no
passion, you don't enjoy life, you're not productive, you can't
make a difference. Lots of children change the vocations in
university different from what the parents wanted, and they find
fulfillment and satisfaction in that. When they find fulfillment
and satisfaction in what you study, your soul gets satisfied
wherever I go, people always speak about the future, about a field
strength. Is there any hope for us and for our children? There's two
critical elements that's important for you to understand
faith and spirituality.
We need to bring that fully back into our lives. Because of faith
and spirituality, comes positivity and hope. There is no other way to
get positivity and hope, except through faith and spirituality,
our trust alive in khomani in Queenstown, late in the afternoon,
an old lady comes out of the house and clutches she looks heavenly
words and picks up her hand in a rural area of Queenstown, and she
says, You never Let me down.
There was no food. She was hungry, no means of getting any type of
sustenance. But she had faith and hope that through that faith,
something will come. And it happened,
20th, January, 2010
eight days into the earthquake in Haiti, in the collapsed Catholic
Church,
64 year old and as easy, no oxygen, no food, fractured hip,
completely no water, completely covered in rubber.
My teams gave the sounds in radon eight days into the earthquake,
throughout January, 2010 the earthquake struck at 530 in the
afternoon, 7.0 to escape, and it only lasted 40 seconds. And 40
seconds it wiped out 220,000
people.
And this sound was heard in the Catholic Church and my team's
waiting, and three hours later, they pulled her out alive, 64 year
old, erazi. Her first words were, I love God Almighty. You instruct
hope and faith in somebody several 1000 countries.
Her second words were, I love you. The essence of faith and service
is love.
And all of you,
if you don't have faith and ethics and spirituality, you can become a
national monster. What 10 is all of the
evening to have if you don't apply faith and ethics, you can destroy
your family, you can destroy your company, you can destroy your
family, because ego overtakes the brain, and there are so many
incidents in history where very learned people have destroyed
populations and people ethics is critical in whatever you do and
serves in whatever you do. Please, don't ever forget that. And it
starts off with respect to your parents, but you just spoke
earlier. Of course not. You are not here by all day. Accord. You
are here because of your parents, your family and your teachers who
invested a lot in you. Education is not cheaper. It takes a large
part of the budget of families. You need to respect what you've
been given, and with that respect, you will get respect when you make
progress. I want to come back to the spiritual path of gift of the
givers. It's a very important lesson. It's something that I've
learned. You see gifts of the givers, please stop my
organization.
I didn't get up on morning and say to myself, I think today I'm a
formal organization. Give it a name, find some former members,
write a constitution and say, I will do one, two, 3.5
it never happened that way. The
organization itself is a spiritual point. Every aspect of the
organization is spiritual. The official date is sixth, August,
1992 but
there's a spiritual element that takes me back to 1985 I
was doing my internship and to get across the whole endeavor. And I
said to myself, as all young people say, we have a goal, we
have a vision. We've got plans for the future. And I said to myself
that next year, I will be a medical officer, and after that,
I'll be a register i.
After that, I become a specialist in internal medicine.
It didn't happen.
There was no opportunity, no place. I couldn't study further.
There were one of two options, like many people face in the
country today, I can sit in a corner and mock and win and
perform a part with and be depressed and says, the end of
the world, or I can look at myself and say, there's god, there's
faith, there's hope, there's alternatives. We can look at
something different. We have rational we have reason, we have
intellect. You can do something different.
And I decided I was going to private practice. It's something I
never wanted to do, but under the circumstances, I made the choice
to go into private practice. You see, we are teaching we don't pray
for what we want.
We pray for what is good for us, because what you want may not
necessarily be good for you. So when things don't work out for
you, for your friends or your family. Always look at it again
with a positive eye, not a negative mind, and say, why this
thing not work out? There must be a very good reason. And quite
often, will be shown that the part you want to follow was the part of
the performance and not the right path, and that's why you did not
structure. So all, you're going to have a lot of challenges in life.
You've been looked after in nurture. You're in very safe
environment. When you go out there, it's very, very different.
And you're going to have a lot of challenges, and you need to have
that open mind to deal for those challenges. So I moved to
management. I moved from Derby to management to try a new place, to
start a private
practice. The week I go to marysburg, an Africana guy is only
my neighbor, who is a butcher, comes to me because I got a new
neighbor. Now I am staying in a new building. My neighbor comes to
me and he says, I bought this Afrikaner guy. He bought wheat
from me. And he said, Rafael. So I preach, and
you start speaking, and he talks to me about the spiritual teacher
that he met in New York. But a teacher is from Istanbul, a Sufi
master, and when we discuss, it tells me a lot of things that I
say sounds very much like what the teacher says, When you spoke to
teacher, and then after some months, he tells me, You need to
go to Istanbul.
So I said, Mother,
it's 1986
I still haven't seen Cape Town.
Whenever I want to get to Durham.
He said something very profound.
He said, what God wants happens? There's a time,
August 21
our wife and I attended a long story, but when we got there,
we our minds start opening up. Remember we coming from an
apartheid South Africa, and when we get there, we see people of all
nationalities, Americans, Russians, people from Sweden,
Norway, Germany, Denmark, Canada, Brazil, Argentina, Mexico,
Southeast Asia, India, Africa, all over but different religions,
Jews, Christians, Hindus, Muslims, people from other religions and no
religion. Nobody is judged.
Everybody respects each other in an equal manner, pure humanity,
and the only thing that overflows between these different groups is
life and respect. I look at this, I can't understand it.
Spiritual teacher looks at the shot on my face, and he sees, what
do you see? I said, I confused different people from different
countries, red walls all over the world. What are we doing
altogether the same place? And he says, My son, mankind is one,
single nation.
The God of all mankind is one. We just know him by different names.
The essence of religion is love, kindness, compassion and mercy.
I go away following here I come back the official date, six,
August, 1992 Thursday night, 10pm
after spiritual session, the stitches picks his head up what
all morning makes life more category and looks everywhere at
the same time, influenced jekish, and I don't speak all of Turkish,
but I understood every single word that he said in traditional time.
He said, My son, I'm not asking you, I'm instructing you to form
an organization for naming Ana de covid. What for? What if we
translate translated gift of the givers,
you will serve all people of all races, all religions, all colors,
all classes, all cultures, of any geographical location and of any
political affiliation, but you will serve them unconditionally.
You will expect nothing.
Thing return, not even a thank you. This is an instruction for
you for the rest of your life,
serve people of love, kindness, compassion and mercy, and remember
the dignity of men is foremost in whatever profession you take.
Remember treat people of love, respect and look after the dignity
of people, because that is what you would want some you have to do
to you, clothe the naked, feed the hungry, provide water to the
thirsty, and in everything that you do, be the best at what you
do,
not because of ego.
Ego is destructive, but because you're dealing with human life,
human emotion, human suffering and human dignity.
He said, My son, don't ever fail. Remember that whatever you do is
done through you and not by you. All
your achievements is not your weakness. Your achievements is by
grace of God Almighty. Gratitude is a very important component of
wisdom. Be grateful for all the things that have been given to
you, the school that you go to, the best that you have and what
you've achieved. Don't ever forget
that. Ask him, How is it fabulous when you speak Turkish,
understand, I will ask you to speak Turkish. I don't understand.
He said, My son, when the hearts connect and the souls connect, the
words become understandable.
I said, I'm a prophet. I have three surgeries in a place pocket
in Malaysia, South Africa, what is your instruction? What exactly am
I supposed to do?
He looked me in the eye and told me, my wife,
you will know
for 31 years I do,
what to do, what not to do, what to touch, what not to touch, some
of their little subject, doesn't it? So let me give you an example.
January 6, 2040
we get a call from al Qaeda, the tele group in Yemen.
Can you tell us? Are you the guys looking for two South African
hostages?
They say yes.
They say, Come tomorrow, January 7,
2014
10am to agent,
my team member from Yemen rose. None of us have any experience in
hostage negotiations.
We haven't done any studies, no honors, no masters, no PhD, no
intelligence agency or civil service agency in the world has
trained us. We just proved very honored guys.
He goes and meets them, and they allow him to talk to me. Seven,
January, 2014
he meets al Qaeda three days later, January 10, 2014
Yolandi, Koki, the lady, was taken from dunfontein, Africa. He was a
teacher at
Grace College, is released unconditionally, unharmed, zeros
ransom in three days. It's never been done in the history of the
world before,
and yet, we had no experience across the division. We knew
exactly what to do, how to do it and when to say, what to say.
In fact, that night, when I walked out from the place on Sixth,
August, 1992
it came to me respond to the Civil War involved. Yeah,
that same month, I took in 32 containers of eight into a war
zone.
Three months later, we took eight containers of winter items, and
the following year, we set authority engineering companies,
and we designed the world's first containerized mobile hospital, a
product of South African technology engineering, a world
first never time before, burn in Africa and South Africa, and take
it to Europe, to Bosnia,
the CNN on first February 1994
filmed hospital and said the South African containerized mobile
hospital is equal to any of the best hospitals in Europe.
In disaster situations, I want to show you the skill, the expertise
that we get from our schools and our universities and our teachers
in disaster situations. Some people send tents, grandkids,
bottled water, medicines, sanitary divers, energy, biscuits and
things like that. Some people send private health care medical teams.
Some people send trauma medical teams, general surgeon, orthopedic
surgeon, investigative surgeon, intensiveness, fittedness as a
human. Some people send spinal gear specialist. Make people walk
after an earthquake, you can walk from spinal damage. So specialized
to the telephone. Some people.
Sending trauma counselors. Some sending certain expertise. Some
sending canines, the dogs and dog handlers. Some sending medical
equipment. Some send such a rescue equipment. Some people take cash
money and give the people to buy what they want. Some people read
well, houses, clinics, hospitals, and some people start agriculture.
And some people, if there's a conflict situation, has positive
negotiation keys, we're the only thing in the world that does all
of the above. No government, no organization, no country can match
us. We can get off plane and set up an ICU and the theater of
another way in 15 minutes in Somalia, we set up an entire
hospital in three hours? What? Oxygen, theater, ICU, ultrasound,
guiding, obstetrics, pediatrics, every aspect in three hours.
That's our skill. Now to do the last part and finish off with the
power of spirituality, I need to understand how this thing works.
November last year, I got a call from eight hours from a friend of
mine. And he says, Would you like to meet the new head of Turkish
allies? He's moving from San Francisco to Cape Town, the new
general manager. Would you like to meet him?
So I say yes, in my business, any? Networks, planes, ships, trains,
communication systems, ambassadors, governments,
everybody, because I specialize in disaster. I'm doing this for 33
years, 31 years as gift of forgiveness, and two years before
that. So networks are critical. So I said, But
let it happen when it's supposed to happen.
So first February this year, I get over the plane in devil Shaka, and
as the outer flag, the thought comes to me whenever he called you
last year November and told him, why do we call him now?
So I phone him. I says, the guy is available. You see? Yes, we'll see
half a smile tonight.
And so
first we have to react after the plane Street to sreshwara, I meet
the new general manager of Turkish Airlines. My first words to him,
Srinagar, I need an airline partner
that can carry such a search and rescue personnel, medical
personnel, dog handlers, dogs such as Greek open medical equipment
and humanitarian supplies, big tents and whatever. And I want a
fair partner airline in the event an earthquake hits a country
five days later the earthquake hit his country.
We had a partner airline with all the arrangements, and within 12
hours, we were ready to fly to
Turkey. 15 million people were affected by the country
when we got there.
And overall, 172
countries responded, of which sent some sent one team, some sent two
teams, some sent three teams. Let's say 300 teams came. I need
you to understand this very carefully, the power of
spirituality. 300 teams came.
We didn't choose where we want to go. Nobody chooses where you want
to go.
We were selected to go to a place called Hatay. There were only 12
teams in Hatay out of the 300 it was the most destroyed city in
Turkey, 100% flattened. Nothing is left.
Two Chinese teams from the government. All teams were from
government. We were the only non government team in the Italian
Association.
Two from China, two Turkish Government teams, one Italian, one
from Serbia, one from Russia, one from Bosnia, one from Oman, one
from Saudi Arabia, one from Jordan. And us.
Date seems to be like enough of us. The
South African dog says Saudi Arab. And
we go to the building and we put out alive a 90 year old
grandmother. We were the only thing in the world that had five
dogs, and they
came across from other countries, and they said, your dogs are
special. Can be or blended taken. We need them to walk us. So we
asked them, what's special about our dog? Stop. We small
and they said,
your dog can smell a life person and a deceased person at the same
time.
We need two separate dogs to do that, one for life, one for
disease.
That dog is trained
full of respect and dignity, because the quality of the South
African tangible that put that respect
and they asked why? The doctors
said, it's simple, it's South African.
Believe in yourselves, believe in this country, believe in our
skills and.
Final point, I told you the Bosnian team was there. I got the
instruction to form chiefs of the years in Turkey. I got instruction
to form those to send Hospital A to Bosnia. And the Bosnian team
comes 172 countries, 300 teams, only 12 teams in that time of the
12 South of the time Bosnia team is there. The Bosnia team leader
comes to my team leader pats him on the phone and starts shopping.
And we ask, what's wrong? He takes off his wallet from the pocket. He
takes on a picture from the wallet. He points to the picture.
There's a baby in the picture and a mother. He said, That baby is
me. That mother is my mother. We know your name of the
organization. You mean, ask, What do you mean? You said, I was born
in the hospital. That gift of the gifts brought to Bolia in 1993
what's the chances for coincidence? Business science
figured it out. 12 teams, 300 come to the country. Only traveled one
place, the people we served in hospital and the guy who was born
hospital is part of this team, not part of other teams that weigh us,
students, parents, teachers, management, faith, spirituality,
positivity, hope, good, character, ethics will go a long way in life,
and Together, we will fix this. Thank
you so much for that talk, Dr Suman, we thank more properly
later, but from as we just want to thank you for putting us in and
inspiring us that, because who knows what can come out of the
skilled subset of South Africans for now, and it gives us great
pleasure to present the prizes to the matriculating Group of 2023
I ask Mr. Nani to read the awards and Dr SpiderMan to help the third
handing over of the prizes to the prize meeting.