Supermarket carts with packages of toilet paper, bags of rice, diapers, boxes with milk cartons, and liters of water, bleach, detergent, shower gel, mops, brooms… An innumerable list of essential products fill the cleaning canton of the Madrid City Council on Santa Engracia Street, in Chamberí. All of them, not only stored in this one, but in different donation collection points throughout the region, will head to ground zero of the tragedy, with the intention of reaching the last person affected by DANA in Valencia. Pilar, from 27 years old, she is Valencian. He tells this newspaper with anger for not being able to help his neighbors, despite having tried. However, she has found, together with her group of friends, a way to lend a hand from more than 300 kilometers away. They spend the day in this space enabled by the capital’s city council, loading all donations into the trucks – during this weekend it is estimated that more than 400 arrived at the Crystal Pavilion of the Casa de Campo. Solidarity in the canton of Chamberí Neighbors and volunteers sort the donations at the collection point set up by the Madrid City Council Tania Sieira A row of private cars wait with their trunks open for the volunteers to collect everything they have brought. Young people, children with their grandparents and couples approach the uniformed personnel – staff of the capital’s city council – to ask what is needed, they go to the nearest supermarket and return with bags of everything they have asked for. Others, who end up infected by the wave of solidarity, decide to stay and lend a hand classifying the products. Related News La Tercera del Director opinion Yes Chain of failures Julián Quirós The volunteers have filled the gap left by public officials «The packages are taken out that arrive to us, a first classification is done by the volunteers, they are separated by type of product, they are put on pallets, packed, packaged and taken to the Crystal Palace in Casa de Campo. From there it is transported to an Ifema pavilion, where the Government Delegation receives it, so that the army can transport it to Valencia,” Borja Carabante, delegate of Urban Planning, Environment and Mobility of the Madrid City Council, who attended, told ABC. at this point accompanying the mayor of Madrid, José Luis Martínez-Almeida, as well as the spokespersons for the different political groups of the city council. Industrial warehouse in Alcalá de Henares where donations will be collected to send them to Valencia Tania SieiraThis is the route taken by the donations of thousands of Madrid residents who throughout the week have gone to all the points enabled both in the capital and in the Community of Madrid to show solidarity with Valencia, which has been the scene of one of the largest natural disasters that has hit the country in half a century and which so far mourns more than 200 deaths.First stopFrom the Cibeles Palace, the 21 cleaning cantons of the capital and 22 Municipal Police stations, open from 9:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. throughout the weekend, 20 trucks an hour arrive at Casa de Campo, according to Juan J. Giménez Mediavilla, head of the Municipal Logistics Center. There, members of the Environment, Volunteers for Madrid – with the support of Samur Social – and Civil Protection work tirelessly in preparing this aid. All this amount collected and the number of people who are willing to collaborate must be added to what was contributed. by neighbors and volunteers from multiple municipalities in the region. The donations were moved this weekend to an Ifema pavilion – which stores everything that arrives from the capital – and industrial warehouses located in Alcalá de Henares – which are in charge of what is collected in the rest of the region –, where there are several thousands of pallets waiting to be sent to Valencia. Fruit of generosity One of these, Garena, reached its capacity limit yesterday. Today, given this unexpected wave of collaboration that is being experienced both in Madrid and in the rest of Spain, a new warehouse will be opened in this same town to make room for all this merchandise. “All this is possible thanks to volunteering, contributions from both public and private companies, citizens… We are even in a warehouse given by a citizen to facilitate the work,” Francisco Martín, Government delegate in Madrid, tells this newspaper. during a visit to the warehouse of an industrial estate in Alcala, with a storage capacity of 2,200 square meters. “It is a task with so many people that it is leading us to have to expand the volume of the warehouses,” he points out. From the donated products, the pallets and the moving boxes to the packing tape that embraces the donations, as well as the means of transport to move the merchandise to its different stops, have arisen from the incessant intention of Spanish society to help. The labor force found in these warehouses enabled by the Government Delegation comes from the different volunteers of the National Police, from the companies involved in this solidarity process and from the Delegation itself. Yesterday was the first day in which the first ones could be launched. trucks bound for Valencia. Shipments are made in coordination with the National Emergency Center and the Valencian Generalitat, with departures carried out in accordance with the demands required in the territory. All of this with the intention that the merchandise would arrive with the guarantee that the affected municipalities would be able to assimilate that arrival, the Government Delegation points out. madrid_dia_0703Pilar, the young Valencian woman who has spent the long weekend thinking about her friends and family, admits who fears that those affected will fall into oblivion now that routine returns. The hours in which she is not working she will return to the cleaning canton of Chamberí or any other point in Madrid where she can feel close to the DANA victims. What the people of Madrid have shown this weekend is that they will also help.
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