Dana Kids, Carla’s Tribe, an express story and other initiatives to serve boys and girls affected by DANA

A week after the DANA disaster affected the Valencian Community, the wave of solidarity that is being experienced in the most damaged towns is taking different forms. Some of the initiatives are focused on a particularly vulnerable part of the population: boys and girls. At least 22 towns in the region have been left without a single useful school or institute. Fathers and mothers, family associations and teachers denounce that the little ones do not have safe places to go in the midst of the disaster.

Faced with this situation, some people have begun to organize to offer specialized care with a childhood focus, which includes safe care spaces where children can be while their families participate in reconstruction tasks, coverage of their most basic needs – diapers, formula milk, children’s clothing, school supplies, some toys, specialized psychological care and recreational or educational activities that allow them to escape for a few hours from the extreme situation they are experiencing.

Dana Kids, child care spaces

One of those projects is Dana Kids, a popular initiative focused on helping families by taking care of the little ones while adults carry out cleaning and reconstruction tasks.

Rubén Gadea, one of its promoters, says that the idea came to him last weekend and it took just two days to put it into action. “On Friday I was removing mud in Benetúser, and I thought it was important that someone take care of the boys and girls in a safe space so that their families could continue cleaning, and also so that they could leave the most destroyed towns for a few hours,” explains. On Saturday it was launched, and with the help of two colleagues, Miguel Jiménez and Marta Castro, they found a space and thousands of volunteers: “Right now we are 2,700 volunteers, including teachers, free time instructors and professionals in the sector, all of us.” them with their crime certificate to build safe, legal and quality spaces for children,” explains Rubén.

The Espai Rambleta, in Valencia (Bulevar Sur, corner Calle Pío IX, s/n, Jesús) has given them its space to organize sports, cultural and recreational activities for boys and girls between 3 and 12 years old. To participate you must fill out this form, but if a family cannot cover it due to lack of connection or because the tool fails, they can register directly at the center. At the moment they offer this service every morning, from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., but they are looking to expand meeting times and places, especially in the most affected towns: “People have been very involved, we have a lot of space, a lot of material that they have brought us and There are many volunteers, but the families who are in the most needy towns cannot get them out of there because they have no way to get around. So we are trying to find safe places in the most needy populations so that they do not have to move,” says Rubén.

Carla’s tribe, “help from mother to mother”

Carla García is a perinatal psychologist and speech therapist. Through her work she has contact with mothers and families in the most affected areas, so as soon as she learned the extent of the disaster she felt that she wanted to do something to help pregnant women, mothers and babies affected by DANA. Through different messaging applications, they added people who could lend a hand, but the two tools they used collapsed in a few hours due to the barrage of requests and offers of support. Now they are working against the clock to set up a web platform to coordinate aid. They also do so with the aim of being sustainable in the medium and long term: “We want to build a website to cover the needs of mothers and babies, a place that is a refuge that offers long-term support for mothers. Right now, with the emergency, there are many people dedicated, but we must continue supporting mothers in a few months, as long as they need to rebuild their lives,” explains Carla by phone.

At the moment they are channeling all the help through the Instagram profile La Tribu de Carla. Milk, medicines, diapers, strollers and children’s wellies are some of the most urgent requests. A professional help group has also emerged that provides its services in solidarity to those who may need it: midwives, gynecologists, child psychologists, teachers and caregivers offer their work to the most affected families. And even other initiatives have been born that are no longer managed directly by Carla, but rather by some of the volunteers with whom she collaborates: “This project has had small roots with other derived projects, such as exclusive volunteers for mothers and babies or points where only distributes children’s material,” explains this perinatal psychologist. And he adds: “We want mothers and babies to continue maintaining the tribe and support, to generate a network that does not forget the reconstruction process, a space where we can listen to the needs they have and launch initiatives to cover those needs.” .

A book so you understand what happens

Another specific need that children have is to understand what is happening. Depending on their age, they may have difficulty understanding the scope of the tragedy, especially if they have had close losses. So you have to make an effort to explain the situation to them so that they can begin to assimilate it. With this objective, the story was born in record time. Valentina and Danaa children’s story that explains, through the voice of the protagonist, the girl Valentina, what has happened these days in the Valencian Community. It sends a hopeful message, of unity in the face of tragedy, and seeks to deactivate some of the most common fears in childhood. The book is posted openly at this link and can be distributed freely. Shortly after publishing it, different professionals offered to translate and illustrate it. Right now it is available in seven languages ​​and even in audiobook format.

Its author is Elena Santamarta Rodríguez, pedagogue and future Primary teacher. He says that the idea occurred to him a few hours after the passage of DANA. “I work with girls and boys in Early Childhood and Primary Education. When all this happened, one of the little ones started talking about how he had seen images of what happened but didn’t really know what was happening. At that moment my head started thinking about how to explain to him and the rest what was happening and what a DANA is, and this is where I realized that there are very few resources that are prepared to work on situations like this. . That same day I started thinking about how to create a resource that could respond to this need and after writing, erasing and designing, “Valentina and the Dana” came to light, he says.

NGO campaigns focused on children

In addition to popular initiatives, different third sector organizations are focusing their help on boys and girls in the most affected areas. The Children’s Platform, a network that brings together more than 70 organizations, has created a directory where the specific campaigns of the different NGOs are listed. Some of the best known are Save the Children, which is collecting donations to deliver urgent aid to people who need it, especially children; UNICEF, which is also appealing for funds to restore access to education and offer psychological support to affected children; o Educo, which works in coordination with local entities to offer psychosocial support to children.