Queen Letizia has asked the different social entities that are providing assistance to the more than 800,000 affected by the passage of DANA through the east and south of Spain that this support be sustained over time, taking into account the seriousness of the damage.
This is what he has done, as reported by Zarzuela, during the meeting he held with representatives of the Red Cross, the Spanish Association Against Cancer (AECC), the Spanish Federation of Rare Diseases (FEDER), ONCE, the Mental Health Confederation and the Spanish Committee of Representatives of People with Disabilities (CERMI).
Different initiatives
The meeting, which took place at the Zarzuela Palace, allowed Doña Letizia to learn about the different initiatives that these organizations are working on to care for those affected, especially people with special needs such as disabilities, oncological processes, rare diseases. and mental health, among others.
The Queen has thanked the work that all these entities are doing and has asked that as “the damage is going to be profound and will require a lot of time, this constant and sustained attention over time be extended beyond the nine days we have been in.” since the tragedy occurred.
For their part, the organizations present have expressed their commitment to offering communication about their actions to help those affected by DANA and alleviate its effects on the population.
The general coordinator of the Spanish Red Cross, María Ángeles Cacereño, participated in the meeting; the general director of the AECC Scientific Foundation, Isabel Orbe; the general director of FEDER, Isabel Motero; the president of the General Council of ONCE, Miguel Carballeda; the president of the Spanish Mental Health Confederation, Nel González Zapico, and the president of CERMI, Luis Cayo.
After the tragedy occurred, the kings decided to modify their agendas, eliminating a good part of their commitments for this week, to focus on everything related to the havoc caused by DANA and the attention that the thousands of people affected by it are receiving.
This Thursday’s meeting is framed precisely in this interest and is in line with the special attention that Queen Letizia traditionally pays to the work carried out by entities that work in areas such as rare diseases or mental health.
Help those affected by DANA
«We have informed the Queen that we work first on urgent issues, on which all attendees have agreed, such as recovering the house, the vehicle and other very important issues, such as wheelchairs that have disappeared, hearing aids, cochlear implants… “All of this is essential to begin to recover normality,” said the president of ONCE at the end of the meeting.
Likewise, Carballeda has conveyed to Doña Letizia the “total willingness” of ONCE to be at the side of the citizens “not only in these moments, but in the long process that will entail fully recovering from what happened.”
Since this Wednesday, specific teams from the ONCE Social Group, made up of mobility technicians, social workers and psychologists, are touring the most affected areas. Among its tasks, analyze the terrain to open transit routes for blind people from their homes to bus departure points, thus trying to guarantee their communication.
In the case of AECC, its president has explained that the association is working on transferring cancer patients to hospitals, managing accommodation for those who have lost their home or have difficulty getting to the hospital, as well as psychological support for anyone affected. due to the emergency, which has allowed 75 patients and 12 minors to be treated so far.
«Message of tranquility»
Furthermore, the AECC has taken the opportunity to convey “a message of tranquility in relation to possible delays in oncological treatments, since they do not pose a risk to its effectiveness in the majority of cases” and have reminded the recommendation to the population with cancer to take extreme hygiene and protection measures.
From FEDER, they have indicated that the federation is “in a phase of mapping people with rare diseases directly affected by DANA” and have said that they are aware that there are “families affected with rare diseases, with severe pathologies and “high degree of dependency and disability who find themselves in a situation of extreme vulnerability.”
Given this circumstance, they are in coordination with their entities “to be able to speak directly with both the associations and the families to detect needs and accompany them throughout the process.”
In the case of Mental Health Spain, it has been explained to the Queen that the associations of AFEM Torrent and AFPEM HORTA SUD of Catarroja, which in turn serve people from Paiporta, Picaña and other impacted municipalities, have been affected, with at least At least 70 families seriously affected.
For its part, the Red Cross has indicated that it has almost 2,000 people dedicated to responding to this emergency. In addition to helping with cleaning and clearing debris, they are also providing immediate health care and psychological first aid.
There are also teams in charge of distributing materials and food, in collaboration with the UME, and identifying the needs of the population, helping in some cases to reestablish contact between neighbors, given the poor state of communications. In addition, they are helping, under an agreement with the College of Pharmacists of Valencia, to transport the necessary medicines to the homes of those affected.
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