It was 1992 when one of the worst tragedies to affect the world occurred: the Yugoslavian War and the wide scale massacre of Bosnian Muslims. As the world watched, unresponsive to the scale of the tragedy, one man, Dr. Imtiaz Sooliman took action.

Based in South Africa, Dr. Imtiaz Sooliman is the chairman of the Gift of the Givers organization, the largest non-governmental organization in Africa. In 1993, Gift of the Givers developed the first and largest containerized mobile hospital and with the help of the United Nations and in spite of many obstacles the mobile hospital was dispatched and delivered to the Muslims of Bosnia.

Since then, Gift of the Givers has delivered more than $26 million worth of aid to 22 countries, including South Africa. In the endeavor to implement a rapid response scheme, Gift of the Givers has often been the first to respond to crises around the world and has a number of achievements in its 13-year existence. It was the only charitable organization allowed to land its own plane at Baghdad International Airport after the second Gulf War to deliver aid to the Iraqi people. They were also the first NGO in the world to respond to the Sri Lanka and Somalia tsunamis.

More recently, according to Sky News, Gift of the Givers was one of the first five agencies in the world to respond to the Pakistani earthquake:

“The sheer extent of the devastation with almost 90 percent destruction of infrastructure, homes, schools, hospitals, and government institutions in several villages and cities in the whole of the northwest frontier province and Kashmir region is mind boggling. The death toll, the number and magnitude of the aftershocks, over 100,000 dead, an equal number injured, the gruesome nature of the injuries, the number of amputations performed especially on little children, the number of orphans and widows, 4 million homeless, people hungry and cold, no gas or electricity, freezing weather, landslides, tetanus outbreak, even a portion of the mountain breaking off and falling down, inaccessibility by road or helicopter and helicopters crashing. The tragedy is unfathomable, the human misery inexplicable, the pain and the emotions indescribable. Children have lost the ability to smile, their faces expressionless. But amidst all this horror at least humanity is responding in the best way it can,” reports Gift of the Givers.

Gift of the Givers has earned the respect and admiration of not only the Muslim community in South Africa, but also that of non-Muslims and the South African government. In a recent development Gift of the Givers, in partnership with NEPAD (New Partnership for African Development), has proposed to develop a rapid response program to respond immediately to crises in Africa.

“The casualties of the recent famine crisis that hit Niger could have been curtailed if Africa had responded sooner rather than waiting for assistance from richer nations,” says Dr. Sooliman. “The focus that Africa gains is that Africans are backward and stupid,” says Sooliman. “We need to stop being dependent on westerners to tell us what is wrong with our continent.”

Sooliman recently wrote a letter to the South African government saying that what happened in Niger should not have occurred, and that we should not have looked outside of Africa for assistance. He suggested that a program of an early warning system in Africa is required, which needs to be run independently of the African Union (AU) but with the AU’s endorsement. Sooliman said that total impartiality in the case of outbreak of war or feuding is required.

Sooliman has called for more government interaction. He said that as the largest NGO in Africa, Gift of the Givers has been extremely successful in its missions, but it is a small organization in terms of the support required because the disasters and problems in Africa are increasing.

Sooliman highlighted infrastructure and bureaucracy as the two main obstacles to aid in Africa. “We need to create a love for Africa, to believe that we can make Africa work. We’ve got the money, the skills, the resources,” said Sooliman.

“We have to stop relying on western countries to respond first to catastrophes in Africa. Africa needs to and can resolve Africa’s problems. We have the capabilities to do so,” says Dr. Imtiaz Sooliman.