Imtiaz Sooliman – tells us about the Gift of the Givers Disaster Conference

Privilege to speak to Dr imtia Suleiman here in Cape Town ahead

of the disaster conference in partnership with the Stellenbosch

University next week. Now, this conference will focus on how to

deal with disasters, but let's get stuck right in with Dr Suleiman,

Doctor, thank you so much for your time. We know you're very busy.

What is this conference about? This conference will teach you the

A to Z of disaster intervention from the time, for example, an

earthquake strikes, the call comes, how you prepare, how you

arrange, the type of teams you take, the type of temperament, the

logistics getting to area, the risk, the diplomacy, the type of

equipment required, the type of interventions, the type of

procedures, how you adapt. There's no machines, there's no equipment.

There's broken hospitals, how you deal with the trauma and the

stress of the people, how you get moving to save lives. It's a total

combination. It's not a theoretical conference. It's not

about academic learning about something from a textbook. Every

presenter is a gift of the givers. Presenter, every presenter has

been on a on a disaster. The panel, those that don't speak will

augment what those have spoken. They've missed out something. It's

years of experience brought together. Thank you to selenberg

University. It's given us an opportunity to synthesize

everything that we've done over the years, and we give the public

an opportunity to see what it's all about. It's not a medical

conference. It has disciplines of medicine involved. Sorry, it has

the search and rescue canines, trauma counseling, logistics and

every aspect communication, systems, networks, diplomacy,

every aspect of what's required. Sorry, in an international

conference, why do you think a conference like this is necessary?

It's important that the world knows that South Africa has the

capability to involve and intervene in any type of disaster.

When we were in Hatay to Turkey, is the city in Turkey that was

totally flattened. We had 12 different countries there. They

were amazed at the skill of South Africans. We were the only team

that was not sent by government. Every other team there came from a

government, and in fact, they said they want us to be part of them in

any other disaster. They were impressed, and we want to pass

those skills on, to show the country that we have the skills,

and not only the country the continent, to say that as

Africans, we can do this. And the other point on that is, when you

travel overseas and you're telling me, from Africa, the first

question they ask you is, what did you come to fetch? You guys have

the backing board. You always want things for free. What can you guys

do? And we want to encourage our people to say we have the skill

and we can make a difference. And actually, we've heard also from

Doctor Chu saying that South African surgeons, our medical

teams, are actually very, very highly skilled and can work under

any conditions. Yes, they've seen that in all parts of the world,

you know, we have the experience. We've got our type of situation in

our hospitals, you know, and our guys who come from worst, first

world countries, come to very, you know, organized type of medicine

equipment, technology that doesn't happen in a in a disaster zone.

And even if you have the technology in disaster zone, it's

totally destroyed in a major earthquake or a war, and you left

to your own personal devices, your acumen, your inner skill, your gut

feel. And you have to do that kind of intervention. For example, at

one of the disasters, we asked for orthopedic drill, and the guy

brings a Black and Decker, which we use for DIY. And orthopedic

surgeon said, Yes, we can use it. And this conference will teach you

how we adapt, how we modify, how we change rules to save lives.

It's about saving lives under any circumstances.

We've heard earlier there was a question asked that everybody

knows by now that if there's a crisis in the country, gift of the

givers will be there. And it seems that government works in silos.

Where do you find there's a disconnect?

Why don't we see that the response that you bring from our government

institutions? I've addressed it with government directly, and I

said, you guys don't have a coordinated system. This

unfortunate government is too fragmented. Who is involved, who

is in charge? Is it national? Cockta? Is it provincial? Cockta?

Is it disaster management, which is a separate body altogether? Is

it disaster management in the municipality? Is it the

municipality? Is it canine? Is it a defense force? Is it, you know,

some other, ah, teams within different parts of the country,

and that is glaring in the KZN floods, there was no clear chain

of command. Who's in charge? You need one guy at the top, says,

police, military, disaster management teams from the rest of

the country to come such a rescue. We need you from Gauteng, limpopo,

kamu, KZN is you? They don't have that kind of system. That's the

first problem. The second problem is we need alternate communication

systems. In in disasters like this, cell phone networks go and

you need two way to reduce two way radios. Nobody had that. We've had

so many disasters in the last few years. There's no backup supplies

in terms of mattresses, tents, blankets, food, parcel, nothing.

All those systems needs to be addressed to be more coherent. But

more than that, you need one central chain of command. That's

only way we're going to figure.

Is responding to disasters in a very efficient manner. So what do

you hope those who attend your conference will take away? We're

hoping they learn how we operate, but many of them do now we operate

because they are the ones that call us in the first place to get

to the different areas. But the fact that municipalities have

called provincial disasters have called. They want to send

delegates again. They want to know the budgets available you know

within the departments to send

them.