Page 12 - MiNDSPACE Issue 2 2022 - Old Mutual Corporate

interview impactSPACE
Imtiaz Sooliman:
South Africa’s fixer-in-chief
#MakeADifference #ForTheGreaterGood #SA
#SouthAfrica. These hashtags used by Gift of the Givers speak of the organisation’s unflagging desire to help, which they do under the extraordinary leadership of Imtiaz Sooliman.
There is a laser-focused energy to Imtiaz Sooliman that sizzles in the back-and-forth WhatsApp messages as we try to find a gap in his constantly morphing diary. I feel it again when
organisation; the name will be Gift of the Givers. You will serve all people of all races, of all religions, of all colours, of all classes, of all political affiliations from any geographical location, and you will serve them unconditionally. You will not expect anything in return. This is an instruction for you for the rest of your life.’
By Anneliese Burgess
he finally flickers onto my screen
from his home in Pietermaritzburg.
He is wearing a black jacket over a distinctive Islamic-green Gift of the Givers T-shirt with the South African flag emblazoned across one shoulder.
The devout young medical doctor listened. He went back
to Pietermaritzburg, closed his practice and, at the age of
30, started building an aid organisation that would grow a
global footprint: Somalia, Philippines, Pakistan, Haiti, Congo, Portugal, Lebanon, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Sri Lanka, Kosovo, Chechnya, Iran, Rwanda, South Sudan, Yemen, Malawi, Syria, Palestine, Ukraine.
It perfectly encapsulates Sooliman's three abiding passions – his commitment to service, his devout spirituality and a fervent South African patriotism.
A BAPTISM OF WAR
To call him extraordinary is an understatement. For the past three decades, Gift of the Givers (GOTG) has deployed its
team of specialists to disasters in more than 45 countries: wars, earthquakes, famine, tsunamis, drought, floods, civil unrest – even handling complex negotiations to free kidnapped prisoners. It is the largest African non-governmental aid organisation, and it was born in one profound moment 30 years ago.
‘Eighty five percent of what I know today I learnt on our very first mission to Bosnia in 1992,’ Sooliman says. Initially, his focus was on providing food, medicine and other supplies, but before long he had also assembled a medical team and built a hospital out of shipping containers.
‘It was a Thursday evening, just after a ceremony we call zikr, an Islamic meditation in which we recite God’s name in Arabic.’ Sooliman was with a Sufi spiritual teacher, Muhammed Safer Efendi al Jerrahi, in Turkey.
‘It was a feat of South African engineering,’ he says. ‘Operating theatres, an intensive-care unit, an X-ray department, specialised units for burns, physiotherapy, emergencies, orthopaedics and incubators for premature babies. We even had our own generator and an ambulance and bus for patients.’
Although the Sufi teacher spoke Turkish, Sooliman understood every word the sheikh said, something he puts down to ‘words connecting when hearts connect’: ‘My son you will form an
The hospital was the first of many firsts. Sooliman is an innovator. He thinks big. Today GOTG has one of the most effective and experienced disaster reaction teams in the world. The extraordinary efficacy of his organisation lies in its
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