Francesca Villette
THE Gift of the Givers received a phone call from a woman desperate to know whether the organisation could assist in finding her brother, who was in the Synagogue Church of All Nations in Nigeria at the time of its collapse. A few phone calls later the disaster relief organisation told Diane Reddy her sibling, Yegambaram Chetty, was alive and well in a hospital in Lagos yesterday.
On Monday Reddy, from Durban, contacted the organisation’s founder, Imtiaz Sooliman, in a desperate attempt to find her brother. “We requested our representatives in Nigeria to try and trace her brother and check on the well being of other fellow South Africans,”
Sooliman said. He called his colleague Mohammed Jamie in Nigeria, who was unfortunately 500km away from Lagos.
Jamie said he contacted two of his colleagues closer to the city and they went to Avon Healthcare Hospital.
“They found him and he seemed to be all right. He did not have any major injuries,” Jamie said.
Reddy could not be reached yesterday.
Jamie said his two colleagues were chased out of the hospital by police before they could speak at length with Chetty.
Sooliman said the organisation had a team on standby in case Nigerian officials needed assistance during the rescue.