Imtiaz Sooliman – talks of the work done the Gift of the Givers
AI: Summary ©
The speakers discuss the overwhelming success of the current crisis in South Africa, including the unbelievable work of Apollon, a woman named Apollon, who found a gift of givers in a hospital. They also talk about the ongoing struggles of people in South Africa to support the work of the givers.
AI: Summary ©
We're talking to the gift of the givers. We've got into Suleiman
here in studio with us talking about the unbelievable work that
this NGO does here in South Africa. We spoke about Bosnia just
before the break and and this, this world, world first
hospital that you created, and which is absolutely incredible.
But then came the tsunami in 2004
and that, I don't think anybody, anybody in their right minds,
could prepare themselves for something like that. What was that
like for you? That was huge. In fact, I was in Cape Town on
holiday. It was the 26th of December, and Rogan media station
called me to said, Did you see the tsunami? To be honest with you,
that's the first time I heard a word like that. You know, all of
us, I wonder what? What is this guy talking about tsunami? What is
tsunami? And then where I was, there was no TV and there was no
news, there was no telephone lines and nothing and I needed to get to
somebody's house to see the pictures. When I saw the pictures,
it was horrific, yeah. And I said, we need to respond right now. The
holiday stop I took took out the my phones, family phones, the
kids, phones, every cell phone. I said, we gotta move into action.
That was 26 December, 2004
what? In 48 hours, we had a team inside Sri Lanka. You know, the
teams are on the way. We made contact with the Sri Lankan
President. We were the first team in the world there in Sri Lanka.
Yeah, we met the president, and she said something very strange,
because India said, Look, we don't need any help. The rest of the
world went to Thailand because it's a holiday resort for most of
the reach of the world. Yeah. And Indonesia is the factories for
most of the of the European countries and the Western
countries. So a lot of interest was in Indonesia and Thailand, but
Sri Lanka, nobody was very interested. And the President
said, we don't know how to respond to a thing like this. We found
partners on the ground in 48 hours, you know, we were
delivering eight already inside Sri Lanka. And, you know, local
companies partnered us. And of course, we started at that stage.
Still we didn't have, you know, search and rescue teams, and it
was still the evolution of the organization. Our initial phase
just rebuild Hospital in 1993 but after that, it was blankets,
clothes, that kind of stuff. Yeah, it wasn't a rescue teams and
medical teams as such. It was after it was part of the tsunami
that the medical teams evolved, because we got involved in two
places. One, we sent a non medical team to Sri Lanka, but they didn't
need medical teams. They just wanted help with tents and houses.
We were the first agency in the world to be to be given land by
the Sri Lankan President to set up a housing village. And we were the
first agency in the world that actually set up a housing village
after the tsunami in Sri Lanka and finished. And at the same time, we
responded to Africa. I mean, the Africans don't respond to Africa.
Don't expect other people to respond to Africa. And that was in
Punta in hafun and the northeast of Somalia. And strangely enough,
right up to Cape Town. The waves were all affected in Cape Town, in
Kenya, in Mombasa, all over and there the water came in in hafun,
it destroyed many of the houses, and 2000 people were affected. The
tragedy was their livelihood is dependent on boats and fishing.
The guy who may fix his boats, he died, and they had no alternative
means of income, and nobody else to repair their boats. We went in.
We had to fly in illusion. We landed in Uganda because an
illusion can't land in bosaso, the runway is too short. We moved
everything from the plane in the illusion into an Antonov. We
changed planes in an Antonov, you can't sit in a cargo hole. You
have to sit in front because there's no oxygen control. So
1215, of us sat in the front of the pilot, in the cockpit, under
the pilot behind him, above him. To get to the destination, when we
landed, we then had to move 400 kilometers by truck. We reach a
point. Take 16 hours. You cross the sea, you wait for the tide to
go back, you go to the area, you deliver the people. And that's the
first time we took it a medical team. That was a tsunami. Its
logistics, its speed of reaction and its determination to get what
has to be done, that's unbelievable. How many I have to
take, I have to take another break. How many people are in the
gift of the givers? Well, the volunteers are, you know, there's
this unlimited for but the working organization itself full time,
because we have four offices in South Africa are 60 full time
people, 60 full time. But it's not a bunch of people, because we have
warehouses, we have truck drivers, we have projects, we have feeding
schemes. Yeah, it's a lot of work that 60 people do. Yeah, and
people are generous. Oh, generous. Why you think we're so big
Exactly, exactly, and it's South Africans mostly donating 100%
Well, that makes me even more proud. I wanted to talk to you
about Haiti, but are we running out of time? I'm dropping cables
and cords and things because I'm I'm getting too excited to be
talking to because I just think the gift of the givers is is one
of those organizations here in South Africa that we have to be so
proud of. All the details have been at the bottom of the screen.
That's who you can contact to donate. Keep donating South
Africa. You heard from India's it's been amazing. Let's take
another quick break. You.