The 2024 DANA floods in Spain are a natural disaster caused by a cold drop or isolated high level depression (DANA, with acronyms in Spanish) that started on 29 October 2024, with more than 225 deaths and 200,000 people affected. Since then, our teams at SJM Valencia, together with the other Jesuit institutions in Valencia, including Entreculturas Valencia, have set up an emergency response.

Visit to Valencia

Our director, Alberto Ares, visited the SJM Valencia teams on 11 and 12 December, with an agenda that helped him to visit the affected areas and learn first-hand about our work, share with the teams, and give a lecture on the reality of migration, addressing some myths about migration.

Encounters and collaborations

On Wednesday 11 December he greeted and shared with part of the SJM Valencia team and had a meeting with the Entreculturas Valencia delegation. Encarni Durán – regional coordinator of Entreculturas in the Valencian Community and Murcia -, Barbara Lara – Development Education Technician – and the rest of the team carry out a magnificent mission, collaborating side by side with the rest of the institutions of Jesuitas Valencia.

Conference: Dismantling the Migration Myth

At the end of the afternoon the conference took place: Dismantling the migration myth, 5 uncomfortable truths, which was attended by more than 100 people. An event organised by the Jesuit Migrant Service (SJM, with acronyms in Spanish) Valencia, as a space to address some of the beliefs that underlie the issue of migrants and their integration into society. Several migration myths were addressed on relevant issues of diversity management and the reality of human mobility at national, European and global level. The conference was followed by a rich space for dialogue and question time.

For those of you interested in the Conference presentation, you can find more information here.

Visit to Zone 0 of the DANA

Thursday 12 was a day to make a field visit to Zone 0 of the DANA with part of the SJM Valencia team – Cecilia, Lorena and Matilde – where we collaborated and supported. Cecilia Villarroel is the director of SJM Valencia, and Lorena Fababú is the coordinator of the Hospitality Area at the same organisation.

Alberto Ares describes his first impressions on the visit to the affected area: ‘It is extremely impressive to walk the streets a month and a half after the tragic event and see the images of destruction, the mud, dust and particles in the air, the queues of families to collect food, the volunteers and the military cleaning up, the garages still full of water, the marks of the flood on the walls of the houses, and the little life that still exists in the streets’.

We share with you a short video in which some moments of the visit are graphically described:

Collaboration with social services

During the visit, they were moved by the testimony of the social services colleagues from the Alfafar town council, with whom we collaborated, advising, training, psychologically supporting and welcoming several families referred to our hospitality communities.

Communities of hospitality

The visit then led them to share a meal in the hospitality community of the Religious of Jesus and Mary, together with Matilde Desantes, superior of the community and part of SJM Valencia. During the meal, the migrant families affected by the DANA and now living in the hospitality community, described their reality, with its lights and shadows, in a warm atmosphere.

During the morning, they visited the destroyed house of one of the host families. They still remember with emotion the tearful eyes of one of the social workers from social services when she narrated how they are living these weeks.

‘I am very proud to have SJM colleagues in Valencia and other parts of Spain, part of the JRS Europe Network, carrying forward our mission to accompany, serve and advocate for the most vulnerable migrants and refugees. I am very grateful to SJM Valencia, Centro Arrupe, Entreculturas Valencia, Escuelas San José, Piso de Acogida Claver, Comunidades de Vida Cristiana (CVX) in the city and the rest of the Jesuit works in Valencia’, concludes Alberto Ares.