By Kevin Govender
Saturday, September 5 was the International Day of Charity (IDOC) and this date was chosen to commemorate the death of Mother Teresa of Calcutta, who passed away on this date in 1997.
She was a frail and dainty servant of the people of India, who was quoted often as saying: “Don’t look for the big things, just do the small things with great love.”
The primary purpose of the international proclamation of the IDOC is to create awareness and provide a common platform for charity-related activities across the world for individuals, charitable, philanthropic and volunteer organisations for their own purposes at local, regional, national or international levels.
Most types of charities are concerned with providing basic necessities like water, food, clothing, health care and shelter. How true when they say charity begins at home and we need to look no further than our noses to heap accolades on a leader and his charitable organisation who daily work miracles for the downtrodden, the forgotten and the destitute.
Dr Imtiaz Sooliman and his able army of volunteers from the Gift of the Givers Foundation have been in service for almost 30 years, delivering much-needed aid of almost R3.5 billion in 44 countries.
From the war-ravaged front line zones of Syria and other Middle Eastern countries to the natural disaster depredations of Haiti, they have gallantly responded to the call for emergency service in time of need. Sooliman himself is a down-to-earth commander in chief who, in 1986, packed his stethoscope away, but not his Hippocratic Oath.
The Star