“Disabled woman with reduced mobility who lives with an elderly person. Due to her illness, the woman needs creams or powders. The food they can bring them. Thank you”. “We are a couple with a 14 month old baby. We need a locksmith since the bottom silver door doesn’t open, and if we break it we can’t close it and they walk right in our house. Thank you very much, really. “Now the water is back to us and it’s silencing us from the bathroom ceiling. “I don’t know if you can send a plumber.”
These are messages left this Tuesday by the citizens of Paiporta, ground zero of the disaster that DANA left in its wake. They are published on Ayuda Terreta, a web application created to “facilitate the exchange of aid and humanitarian resources for people affected by DANA, particularly in the Valencia region.”
The tool places each request on the map with the contact details of the people concerned so that they can coordinate with volunteers who wish to collaborate in the field or send help. Currently, the majority of reviews registered on the platform require the help of technical specialists like plumbers or locksmiths, as well as water extraction pumps.
Ayuda Terreta is managed by two individuals. It is one of the initiatives that emerged to channel the immense flow of solidarity emanating from citizens to help the victims of the disaster and put them in contact with volunteers. “We are working with the Administration so that requests can be managed globally,” they explain.
In the same spirit as Ayuda Terreta but designed around a directory rather than a menu, Ajuda Dana. It is divided into several sections, such as a list of those seeking help and another for those offering it. Again, many people are emphasizing their need for electricians and plumbers who can help them restore electricity and water supplies to affected homes.
However, one of the messages written this Wednesday afternoon reminds us that DANA’s impact goes well beyond the hardware. “Hello, my husband suffers from multiple pathologies with reduced mobility. My son has lost everything and my husband feels useless because he can’t help him. My 92 year old mother lost everything. But we are all alive! Now I have my mother and my son with their family (8 year old daughter and a baby) at my house. I’m in treatment for my depression, so I’m exhausted. The situation has overwhelmed me,” writes Encarna, who leaves his address and telephone number. Seek psychological support.
The situation has overwhelmed me
One of the affected people who seeks psychological help from Ajuda Dana
Carlos asks for help taking a 70-year-old woman suffering from dizziness and weakness to her cancer test. “He must arrive at the 9 d’Octubre hospital, tomorrow November 6 at 3:00 p.m., for an important examination, to prevent the cancer from continuing to progress, but the hospital tells us that they are only giving him means with reduced mobility or dependence, who walk from Benetússer to La Torre and take the bus or cross the footbridge to València We need you to go to the hospital to get tested, miss the test scheduled for tomorrow. can mean everything,” he published on the same platform.
Ajuda Dana also has a “Voluntometer”, a counter of volunteers per location. This Tuesday afternoon showed that there were hundreds of people in Paiporta and Aldaia collaborating in the reconstruction; but that other municipalities like Villar del Arzobispo, further away from the epicenter of the disaster, would appreciate the presence of volunteers to lend a helping hand.
Like Ayuda Terreta, Ajuda Terreta is a “site created by volunteers, independent of any organization”.
The Generalitat has its own online form for sending aid. It is hosted in Som Solidarity and is divided into two channels. One is for volunteers who want to travel to provide support in the field, where they must leave their contact details and the area where they can go (Utiel, Horta Sur, Ribera, Hoya or Castellón). The other is for businesses and is more focused on indexing what type of aid they can send and from where.
The Generalitat has requested that the circulation of private vehicles be limited, as they can collapse access roads and prevent the passage of emergency services.
Since Monday, AyudamosValencia has also been working to facilitate the arrival of information from the people concerned to the authorities. “The app allows users to report immediate and urgent needs. This information will be shared directly with central government authorities and autonomous communities to help coordinate reconstruction work and humanitarian aid,” explains Fundación29, its promoter.
Fundación29 is a non-profit organization that, until now, has focused on promoting the inclusion of new technologies in the health system. “The application is developed to help generate needs maps. This helps to locate on the map, for example, a place without drinking water and to manage logistics,” Ricard Martínez, professor at the University of Valencia who collaborated in the design of the tool, told elDiario.es. protection of privacy.
“By sharing your location and needs, you help emergency teams coordinate help where it is most needed,” details the AyudamosValencia manual, also available for those affected in Castile-La Mancha and in Andalusia.
To avoid data breaches, the app does not link a need to an identity, but to a location. “For this reason, the application only asks for the location of the incident or reported need, never for personal data. It is essential that notifications are made from the space in which the need exists,” they elaborate.
Juan’s initiative shows that with a good idea and few resources, we can also help those affected. It was a high school student who launched Coche DANA, a system for recording vehicles lost during floods. It works both ways: volunteers can record the data of the vehicles they find along with their characteristics and location. Owners can also use the tool to report their car missing.
“It is time to help as much as possible, register cars in affected areas and help their owners locate them,” Juan asks. Its DANA Car application already has more than 900 registered vehicles.
Successful collection campaigns
On the other hand, on Monday evening, neighborhood associations reported that campaigns for basic necessities in several cities in Spain had been a success. For this reason, they asked citizens not to come and deposit more, because the reception capacity of places like Paiporta has “reached the capacity limit”.
Some associations, such as the Regional Federation of Neighborhood Associations of Madrid (FRAMV), have asked citizens who are willing and able to collaborate to prioritize financial donations to entities working on the ground. “Our sister federation in Valencia indicates that direct financial contributions are now more important”they explain.
