The Nicaraguan poet Gioconda Belli once said that solidarity is the tenderness of the peoples. If there is one thing Mijas is known for, it is for its involvement and support for others, as demonstrated by the large number of charitable associations in the municipality. But just in case another example was missing, the Town Hall and Mijas Civil Protection launched the campaign 'Mijas Solidaria' to help those affected by the DANA. In response to this catastrophe, an appeal was made on Thursday 31st of October to mobilise neighbours who want to help by donating basic goods to Valencia. During these days, more than 65,000 kilos of donated material have been collected.
The mayoress of the city, Ana Mata (PP), in view of this tide of solidarity, thanked, last Saturday, "the neighbours for all the affection and support and, above all, for wanting to do their bit by bringing their numerous donations to the headquarters of Civil Protection". Since Monday, donations have to be made at the old fire station, located on Camino de Las Cañadas.
- La alcaldesa de Mijas, Ana Mata, y el edil de Protección Civil, Francisco Jerez, charlan con el coordinador de Protección Civil Mijas
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Coordination is essential to make this aid as effective as possible, something that the councillor for Civil Protection, Francisco Jerez (Vox) highlighted: "Once we are coordinated with Valencia as to where, when and who receives the donations, we will send them. We intend to load a vehicle with many tonnes of material, but they will be the ones to tell us when and where we are going to unload".
Some have lost everything
Under the slogan ‘Collaborate. There are people who have lost everything', the campaign seeks to collect basic goods for families who have lost their homes or are displaced. From non-perishable food to cleaning products, and event food for pets, as the coordinator of the Mijas Civil Protection, David Gutiérrez, said, "neighbours are surprising us with their great solidarity, they have brought a lot of clothes and food and it is to be appreciated in this difficult situation".
The response has been so good in the three collection points, because clothes were also received in Mijas Pueblo and La Cala, that clothes donations are no longer needed. The need now concentrates on cleaning products, non-perishable food, water and milk, nappies, shovels, buckets, brushes, boots and pet supplies.
- Protección Civil Mijas trabaja para ordenar las donaciones
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Fortunately, Mijas has once again thrown itself into helping those most in need, with volunteers and local residents being the real protagonists. The Civil Protection volunteer Jesús Ais pointed out that "now more than ever we need to help and we need to be here lending a hand".
For their part, neighbours Verónica Alarcón and Michel Chantoin agreed that "none of us would like to go through a similar situation and as it could happen to anyone, we have to help in any way we can, even if it is the smallest thing, because everything helps".
A new location to donate
Since Monday 4th of November, the collection has been centralised in the old fire station, at number 4 Camino de Las Cañadas in Las Lagunas, from 10 to 22 hours, without interruption, as donations will continue to be collected until the lorries leave for Valencia, for which no date has yet been confirmed.
- Los vecinos no han dejado de donar desde que se puso en marcha la campaña
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This facilitates the logistics and organisation of the donations. In addition, the Town Hall has asked the groups and associations to coordinate the delivery of products with Civil Protection, to ensure that the process is carried out according to the channels established by the regional administrations, thus optimising the distribution of aid, something which Mata reminded us: "I would like to tell the neighbours to please try to follow to the instructions that we are going to give through the media, because the Spanish town halls are receiving coordination instructions to ensure that there is an orderly distribution, so that this aid is also orderly. There is a lot of help to the people of Valencia from all over Spain and we have to work in a very coordinated way to not collapse the roads, and the goods they need".
A tide of solidarity that does not stop in Mijas and that reveals once again the true secret of life that the writer Kurt Vonnegut left to us: "We are here to help each other get through this thing, whatever it is”.
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