Imtiaz Sooliman – talks of the work done the Gift of the Givers

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.