Quite confusing situation among the thousands of volunteers who attended this Saturday the point set up by the Generalitat Valenciana to collaborate in the municipalities affected by DANA. Impatience and a lack of information got the better of some participants, who decided to leave alone: “After two hours of waiting, we got off the bus,” says one of the displaced people, who was heading towards the town of Llombai. “I was on a bus leaving from the Cité des Arts and we asked the driver to stop near Castellar, after 30 minutes of travel. “Some of us who were leaving got off and walked towards Alfafar,” explains Alberto, one of the volunteers.
The Generalitat Valenciana has communicated that for this Saturday the aid trips of the volunteers who showed up to collaborate in the villages affected by the dana have already been organized and asks that the rest of the volunteers who wish to help come in the coming days.
From seven o’clock in the morning, the Regional Executive manages the arrival of thousands of people in the City of Arts and Sciences. Each group of volunteers is accompanied by a coordinator and receives instructions from civil protection on where and how to help. In the early hours of the morning, a mix-up with the move angered dozens of volunteers, who were heading to Bonaire’s commercial center to resettle in other municipalities. In a moment of confusion due to a confusing order, they thought they were going to clean out the stores in the mall.
Dozens of waiting volunteers went to the municipalities of Horta Sud, closest to the city, to work alone after the wait. Citizen self-organization proves essential in the most remote localities, even if municipalities call for caution. It is recommended to wear a mask, gloves and waterproof clothing due to the substances that the mud may contain, and not to pour it down the drain.
Five buses carrying more than 200 people were sent from Valencia to Requena as part of the voluntary action launched by the Generalitat. The coordinators of each bus are volunteers who were also waiting in line, says one of the participants. When we arrived at the municipality, they expected that there would be a contact from Civil Protection to coordinate us, “but here they knew nothing”. The Local Police, said this aide, said there was work for volunteers because the machines had already acted on Friday and order had been restored. In Chiva, the situation is similar. The officers, some volunteers say, did not know they were volunteers.
