GIFT of the Givers founder Dr Imtiaz Sooliman expressed gratitude for his recognition as a Social Justice Champion of the Year 2021, while reflecting on the role his organisation played during lockdown.
Sooliman said during lockdown, they delivered necessary equipment to at least 210 hospitals at a time when there were high infection rates and a rising number of deaths.
“I am very, very happy. I have received numerous awards but this award is very special because of the timing and circumstances in which the award came.
“The past two years are very special because it sort of reminds me of the collaborative team,” Sooliman said.
He said the Eastern Cape posed the biggest challenge because in the “second wave there were a lot of people dying and we had to go to the hospitals to provide PPEs (Personal Protective Equipment), scrubs and oxygen machines.”
Sooliman said they came across communities where people needed basic services like water and food. They distributed food parcels and PPEs where they could.
They were helping where it was difficult for people to maintain a social distance as per Covid-19 regulations.
“They were not breaking the law, it’s that they were very worried,” he said.
The University of Stellenbosch’s Law faculty trust chair in social justice, Professor Thuli Madonsela conferred the certificate during a ceremony held at the Coopmanhuijs Boutique Hotel on Friday.
Madonsela said once people had been nominated, the public votes and then the council of social justice champions make a decision. She said at the moment the winner receives a certificate and statute.
“We are looking for people, everyone who is championing social justice and we have a council of senior people who have, throughout their lives, advanced social justice. There are 17 of them and then the public is asked to nominate people,” Madonsela said.
She said the Gift of the Givers championed the cause of advancing humanity and played a significant role in reducing inequality.
“One of their biggest achievements has been delivering water in the Eastern Cape, because he (Sooliman) knows that water is life. When there is no water, you can’t do anything else.”
“Health depends on water, but also the quality of life for girls is diminished when there is no water because they have to go to the rivers which means losing time but also being exposed to gender-based violence,“ Madonsela said.
In attendance was last year's winner of the award Eon Hendrikse. He is a founder of the Clay Foundation, which focused on creating leaders among youngsters.
“We focus on the development of a child who comes from previously disadvantaged areas. We focus on three legs; providing nutrition, education programmes and sport programmes.”
“The reason we have these programmes is to accommodate a child because no child can learn with an empty stomach,“ Hendrikse said.
“What we do in the Idas Valley community trails (is) focus on opportunities for people that did not get education. We are creating jobs by building trail routes in the mountains.
“First we try to protect the environment and use the routes to redirect tourism to previously disadvantaged areas. Currently we have employed eight guys and we are funded by trails SA and Imperial Logistics.”