•  I
• a · A  I
• Accesibility  I
• Map  I
• Search  I
• Staff directory

• ::  Iniciar sessió :: 

Tuesday 29 October. 8 p.m. Marcos Dávalos Guaita (24 years old, student of the Master's Degree in Industrial Engineering at the Universitat Politècnica de València) has just finished an online exam - a consequence of the suspension of all in-person academic activity at noon - when he starts receiving videos of floods, tornadoes, people trapped….

Far from remaining paralysed by the impact, hesitating, and hoping that everything would end soon, Marcos decided to act. ‘The first thing that came to my mind was ‘I'm nearby'; somehow, I must be able to help. How could I do it...? And then Ricardo came to my mind because I know he leads a volunteer association, and I called him.

A few metres away, in the same Plaza Alfredo Candel where they both live, Ricardo Mollà Martínez (22 years old, 3rd-year student of the Bachelor's Degree in Business Administration and Management at the UPV) hears the phone ringing. 'I was in the midst of a whirlwind of videos, social networks, cancellation emails... and I received a call from Marcos, saying ‘We have to do something, I don't know what, but something’. We didn't think too much about it. Early in the morning, we ended up with brooms and dustpans from our flats, in our clothes, on the way to the Parish of La Torre in Marcos' car, who knows the parish priest and knew he needed help. It was complete chaos because we didn't know if we had an exam or what exactly was happening, but we grabbed what we could and headed out to the first call for help we received...’.

In that car, Ricardo explains, ‘to be able to communicate with the five of us travelling’ - together with Marcos and himself, Gabriela Ribes (head of the UPV Business Organisation Department, where Ricardo works as an intern), ‘Chus’ Herráez (a student on the UPV Bachelor's Degree in Biotechnology) and Marta Jimeno Luján (a student on the Master's Degree in Industrial Engineering) - ‘we decided to create a WhatsApp group’... the seed of what today integrates army of 1,600 volunteers.

The chaos of Paiporta: ‘We are not helping here’.

After Wednesday's intervention in the Parish of La Torre (where several dozen people joined them), ‘we went to Paiporta on Thursday’, recalls Marcos, ‘where we found such a lack of control among volunteers that we began to think “We're not helping here, we're in the way”, and we decided to redirect the aid. Let's organise volunteer groups right where they are needed', we thought.

‘If Conchi needs 5 volunteers on Blasco Ibáñez Avenue in Picanya, we go there. And we started to get the ball rolling with friends, acquaintances... At first, we were 4 crazy people,' he adds, 'but people started to join in. The initial team - also made up of Celia Rosell Quintanilla and Miriam Machín (social networks) - was soon joined by Javier Morales Redondo and Sara Sánchez Malo from the rugby team, who got us the first passes to take medical equipment to Alfafar and the help grew through their companies (Greenmoil Asesores, Aravon Medical, Happyx Multiservicios...)'.

From multiple WhatsApp groups to integration into one with subgroups for missions

‘I'm good at getting resources,’ explains Ricardo, ’and Marcos is good at getting volunteers. So we started to organise ourselves almost without knowing how. Still, people were passing our phone numbers, and we decided to structure it into WhatsApp groups: one for people who wanted to help in person, another for cars, another for people who needed cars... We didn't really know what we were doing, but it worked'.

‘The first day,’ he recalls, ’we arrived around seven in the evening, and as many supermarkets were closed and some of us had no food at home, we all got together in a house for dinner and a beer. From then on, it became a habit to prepare for each following day.

'On Monday,' Ricardo continues, 'we found full support from the UPV, thanks to Amparo Quilis, who had put us in touch with Constanza Rubio from the School of Agricultural Engineering and Environment. Then, we integrated the WhatsApp groups we had in a community, organised them, and started to work as we do now’.

''Specific missions for people with a face, a name and a surname,'' Marcos explains. 'We created a coordination team, dubbed the 'Crisis Cabinet', and we began filtering the needs. We published a mission, creating a WhatsApp subgroup with a field manager who organised the needs and people signed up. Once the work was completed, the mission was closed’.

‘The UPV, in addition, helped us with the insurance issue,’ adds the Master's Degree in Industrial Engineering student, ’and every member of the UPV university community signed one to be covered.

Time to pass the baton

After two weeks of extraordinary work, 'which', insists Marcos, 'we have had the help of many people with a brutal involvement and without whom we would not have been able to reach so many people, such as “ The cable girls” -Sara Gurrea, Lola Gil, Mónica Espí, Mª José Martínez de Pisón, Silvia Ballester, Águeda Climent, Belén Arrogante, Celia Busquets, Ana Muñoz, Llanos Gómez (seconded by colleagues from the Centre for Developement Cooperation), -The 'Rogle Team' - made up of Jose Pedro García Sabater, Julio Juan García Sabater, Aída Sáez Más, Arnau Igualde Sáez, Pilar Isabel Vidal Carreras and David Martínez Jiménez -, and colleagues also from the UPV such as Mar Adsuara, Víctor Ferrer, Ignacio García Saura, Antonio Salto and Manuel Tena, as well as Luis de Mazarredo, a lecturer at the UPV School of Architecture, who has coordinated the work of countless volunteers in the field, carrying 250 people among 5...’, the time has come to pass the baton.

‘It's time for us to go back to class, as we have studies to complete,’ he points out. 'We aimed to go as far as we could without overstepping. And as Ricardo adds, ‘now, we need qualified people to check the situation of the buildings, we have to leave it to the professionals’.

‘We are going to redirect the project. Recovering the houses is going to be very complicated. I can't rebuild them, but I can help recover homes. The non-urgent, which is still necessary, the accompaniment of people, attention, affection... In the end, when you are there, you realise they are not numbers but people. They continue to have needs that we can and must assist.

Marcos feels the same way: ‘The return to classes has been noticed. There are fewer volunteers and, fortunately, also fewer urgent requests. Before, it was 'I can't leave the house' or 'my basement is flooded'; now, it's all about clearing out storage rooms and other things that are not emergencies but still need to be attended to. That's why our idea is to turn the project towards the current needs, provide lost resources, basic appliances, lamps, light bulbs, paint walls, and remove marks. We will continue the project, but adapting it to the needs and the current situation’.

UPV digital volunteers

'Now', says Marcos, "is the time for subsidies, grants, and this is where the digital volunteers come in". What are digital volunteers, and where do they come from? Belén Arrogante, coordinator of the project and head of Alumni UPV, explains.

‘We are a subgroup of UPV Volunteers. Initially, we collected a profile of needs that came to the WhatsApp group, requests from Turís Town Council, processing aid with TRAGSA, photos of buildings, obtaining cadastral references... and little by little, we have taken the step to create a website that provides an organised and verified index with the main resources and aid available for people affected by the DANA in the Valencian Community'.

This website, Voluntarios Digitales UPV, ‘includes information on financial aid, social services, assistance in case of damage to housing, as well as other local and regional initiatives’. Belén continues, ‘it also has a link to suggest new information, which we will review and, if appropriate, add within 24 hours’.

Alongside her, the Digital Volunteers UPV group includes Daniel Cuesta, a PhD student at the Ingenio Institute (CSIC-UPV); Ana Galiano, PTGAS in the International Action Office; Aida Gil Pérez, PTGAS in VRAIN-UPV; María Moncho, a professor in the Department of Graphic Engineering at the Higher Technical School of Geodesic, Cartographic, and Topographic Engineering; and Bárbara Vega, an external collaborator to the UPV, belonging to the Design area of Hello Watt.

Crystal generation...?

In any case, and despite the fact that this avalanche of more than 1,600 volunteers includes a large number of UPV service, teaching and research staff, and even many people external to the Universitat Politècnica de València, if anything has demonstrated this severe humanitarian crisis caused by the DANA, it is that the labelling of an entire generation of young people as ‘crystal' is a false myth.

'It has been seen that our generation has much to contribute,' Marcos concludes with satisfaction. 'We have written individual letters to everyone, thanking them, above all, for trusting us and putting UPV resources in our hands. I have never felt so valued in my life. It has been an honour.

Not in vain, when it comes down to it, this generation has been much more up to the task than the institutional and governmental leaders, it has shown leadership, temperance, responsiveness and commitment to the society around it.

In short, it has proven to be a true army that combines knowledge, organisational skills and sufficient humility to know how and when to both help and stand aside. And they have done so not with the weakness of crystal, but with character, determination, strength... and the hardness of diamond.

Find out on dana.upv.es all the actions promoted by the UPV to respond to the catastrophe after the DANA

Carlos Ayats Pérez / UPV Communication Area (ACOM)