"What we found when we arrived in Paiporta was a gray panorama with glimmers of hope".

60 medical students from the University of Navarra traveled to Paiporta (Valencia) on December 6 to collaborate in the zone zero affected by the DANA. An initiative that was born among the students themselves, who made themselves available to the parish of San Ramón Nonato in the Valencian town to help their neighbors.

A month and a half after the catastrophe, the mud is still flooding garages, there are houses that have nothing and it is impressive to see the military deployed in the town. The feeling is of being on the scene of a war, explains Ana Larraondo, coordinator of programs of study of the School of Medicine.

The idea of going to Paiporta arose at the end of November, at the initiative of two students from the 2nd and 4th years. "As the medical exams were over, they wanted to take advantage of the holidays to carry out the project of volunteer activities. They asked financial aid to School for the logistics of the trip; the dates were set and the plan was explained to all the students," explains Ana. "On November 27, form from registration was launched and in four minutes the 58 seats on the bus were filled," she recalls. "Students are insisted that they must be doctors who put the person at the center of their work , who are empathetic and who make themselves position of the patient's suffering. The experience of these days reinforces these aspects," Ana continues.

Hope behind the catastrophe

José Stein, one of the medical students from the University of Navarra who participated as a volunteer, describes status in Paiporta as, "a kind of gray with glimmers of hope: the hordes of volunteers with buckets and brooms to help and bail out the mud". 

"Cautious as we descended the ramp, on Friday we entered a garage and saw, by the light of the cell phone flashlight, what awaited us between those columns and walls. I would never have thought to see that place without mud. Yesterday, going up that same ramp, with four shovels that were no longer needed, I thought: 'Woman of little faith'," said Cristina Casado, one of the students who traveled to Valencia. Cristina was also shocked to see how the owner of the garage was moved after seeing it clean: "His father had a workshop there, and after all, he imagined he would never see it like before".

For her part, Ana Belén Ruiz, administrative assistant of doctorate of the School of Medicine and another of the organizers of the trip, states. "We are leaving with a full sack and the thanks of the girls who coordinate the volunteers in Paiporta. In spite of their misfortune, it has helped me and that is what you are left with in the end".

Solidarity beyond the volunteers' own financial aid

The students, who were hosted at high school El Pilar in the Valencian capital along with volunteers from other groups, joined the campaign promoted by Tantaka to distribute Christmas baskets to families affected by the DANA.

For the roundtrip, Edsa Coaches provided travel assistance. Sodexo, business , in charge of catering at campus, provided bottles and bottles of water for the volunteers. Ferretería Irigaray, from Pamplona, provided gloves to protect the students. Likewise, the campaign's solidarity baskets were ordered from business Amossos, from Silla (Valencia), which in turn collaborated with local producers: Cárnicas Ortín, Obrador Real, Turrones La Colmena and Quesos de Hinojosa. In addition, the Clínica Universidad de Navarra, and the laboratory of Medical Engineering and the Simulation Center of the School provided protection material (PPE, goggles, masks, screens...), the Admissions Office of the University of Navarra collaborated with masks and Alumni gave T-shirts to the volunteers.