(Fátima Llorente, in the centre of the photo, with her sisters Rocío and María, whom they met directly in Paiporta)
I am Fátima Llorente De Santiago, I am 21 years old and I am a 4th year student of Economics and International Studies at the Carlos III University of Madrid. I am currently combining my studies with an internship at the Fundación Promoción Social.
A few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to travel to Valencia to volunteer for a few days in Paiporta, one of the areas most affected by the flood caused by the DANA on October 29. I did not really go through a decision-making process as such to go to Valencia; I simply took the opportunity when it presented itself. My sister Rocío (25 years old) had organized with a friend of hers, Álvaro; to go by car to Paiporta, since many help was needed. They immediately got the contact of the parish priest of San Ramon Nonato (Paiporta) and organized the trip with him. As soon as my sister invited me, I did not hesitate to join them. There were four of us: my sister Rocío, Álvaro, his friend Inma and me.
We set off for Valencia on Thursday at 4 a.m., but not before suffering a small setback, as once the car was loaded and in motion,… it broke down! We had to make a sudden change of plans, but that did not stop us from travelling. We returned to Madrid on Friday afternoon, after spending two days there as volunteers.
As we approached Paiporta, the typical Valencian landscape began to change. Instead of focusing on the bright sun in the sky, or on the crops surrounding the road, our eyes could not help but focus on all the wrecked cars that appeared along the way (already on the sides of the roads). Even if we looked at the plants and trees slowly, we realized that there were some that were broken, or had remains of plastic, metal and other types of waste.
Entering Paiporta was devastating. It was very shocking to walk through those streets, to see everything so destroyed, so many houses, so many businesses, so many lives… it gave us the impression of being in a developing country, because it no longer seemed like Spain. We saw the heartbreaking suffering on people’s faces and we felt helpless in wanting to “save” them, since we were very aware that we could not do it alone.
As soon as we arrived, we went to the parish of San Ramón Nonato, which had become a base of operations and a warehouse that supplied practically the entire town, and we put ourselves at their service, doing whatever they told us to do. Our work there consisted of helping to unload and organize all the food/products they had and that continued to arrive at the parish, the result of donations from so many people. In addition, we had to go to different houses of neighbors in Paiporta with shovels and baskets to, little by little, remove the mud, the sludge, the water and all the destroyed things from their homes. Also, to talk, accompany and listen. To have them tell us and share all their pain and suffering, for us, to try to comfort them, even if it was with a simple hug.
The first house we visited was Carmen’s. Her house was on a street full of mud, almost up to her knees, and with a mountain of furniture in the middle, so it was easy to see that her street had not yet been finished. When we asked her if she needed help, with tears in her eyes, she replied yes, that if we had time she would love us to help her. We dedicated ourselves to cleaning her doors and windows, trying to “rebuild” Carmen’s “life”, outside but also inside.
Without knowing us at all, she burst into tears again and confessed to us that she could not take it anymore, that this situation was overwhelming her… somehow we tried to cheer her up, to tell her that we were there, along with thousands of volunteers, for them, to help them. She, at the same time, kept telling us how lucky she had been: her neighbor next door died on the day of the DANA, that horrible Tuesday. They were an elderly couple.
The husband was bedridden and had very limited mobility. They were not lucky enough to be able to leave their house, and the man was not able to climb onto a cupboard, as his wife was able to… Carmen told us, through tears, how they heard the old woman’s cries for help. They could do nothing until the flood stopped… and it was already too late.
We also visited Javi’s house, a man who lives with his wife and his small child. They had the ground floor and basement destroyed. I had never seen so much mud. There were 20 of us (4 of us plus a group of volunteer police officers from Barcelona that we met on the street) who spent more than 3 hours trying to remove all the mud. We did not know what hurt more, our backs, our legs, our arms, or the home of this family that was in tatters. We removed his son’s toys, broken and covered in mud.
I would love to return to Valencia. I firmly believe that it is necessary. As a neighbour we met on one of the streets of Paiporta told us, they need volunteers. Not only for their work, their tools or their financial contributions, but also for the new energy they bring, for their joy and for the need they have to not feel abandoned. Even in these hard and heartbreaking times, in the streets of Paiporta you could hear laughter mixed with tears, there were hugs and comforts between complete strangers, who, even if only for a moment, became friends.
Apart from the obvious material help and the reconstruction and clean-up that is needed in the towns that have suffered the passage of the DANA, for which, of course, all voluntary help will be welcome, I also believe that the presence of volunteers is still needed for the hope and human warmth that they bring, offering comfort and reminding those who suffer that they are not alone.
