Sant Joan Sends 200 Tons of Essential Supplies to DANA Victims

In the past 15 days, more than 200 tons of essential goods have been dispatched from Sant Joan d'Alacant to aid the DANA victims. The community has responded overwhelmingly to the call from the Town Hall, and the urgent material collection campaign has resulted in dozens of trucks and heavy vehicles heading to the devastated towns in the province of Valencia, loaded with materials donated by thousands of citizens. This material aid is complemented by the work and commitment of around 300 volunteers, members of associations, festive entities, sports clubs, and youth groups, who have been actively involved in the solidarity initiative launched by the Sant Joan Town Hall and have remained at the forefront of aid since the campaign to support the DANA victims began on November 1st.

In the first four days of the campaign, a dozen vehicles left Sant Joan loaded with supplies for the DANA victims. The arrangements made by the town hall enabled three large trucks - two of them trailers capable of transporting about 30 tons each - a platform crane, and nine medium and large vans to transport nearly 120 tons of goods to towns around Valencia. This figure has continued to grow steadily, day by day, with vans and trucks loading almost all the products concentrated in the municipal warehouse, sorted by product type, packed, and palletised for proper transportation.

For the mayor of Sant Joan, Santiago Román, this solidarity campaign "would not have been possible without the indispensable help of about 300 volunteers who participated, mainly, during the first three days. Therefore, I want to thank the various festive, sports, and youth associations that have been involved from the first minute and the large number of individuals and companies who have wanted to participate in these collection, organisation, and distribution tasks."

The first shipments were sent to severely damaged towns such as Algemesí, Sedaví, or Massanassa. A few days later, another collaboration route was opened through Alicante Gastronómica. The Sant Joan Town Hall has delivered part of the food collected in the campaign so that this humanitarian entity can cook meals and dishes that are directly transported to the critically devastated area. In recent days, several Alicante Gastronómica vans have visited the municipal warehouse where they have loaded and taken several pallets of rice, pasta, beans, biscuits, sliced bread, pastries, juices, and cereals with which they can prepare meals and food packages delivered directly to the affected people. This line of aid remains open, and it is expected that Alicante Gastronómica will continue to source materials from Sant Joan to maintain the humanitarian work it is deploying these days in the towns ravaged by the DANA.

All these contributions have also been supported by the generous help of Sant Joan's educational centres. Following the urgent material collection campaign promoted by the Sant Joan d'Alacant Town Hall during the first weekend (from November 1st to 3rd), a campaign was launched by local schools and institutes. For a few days, students from the four schools in Sant Joan (Cristo de la Paz, Rajoletes, Lo Romero, and Nuestra Señora del Carmen) and the two institutes (Lloixa and Luis García Berlanga) collected personal hygiene products, water, juices, milk, biscuits, non-perishable canned food, and baby food and hygiene items. All these materials have already been transferred to the municipal warehouse, as well as the hygiene, cleaning, disinfection products, and masks that were delivered on Saturday 9th at the L'Ordana Market, in another extraordinary and specific campaign promoted by the town hall.

This entire campaign to collect essential goods would not have been possible without the unwavering support of dozens of volunteers who have been, and continue to be, on the front lines. Members of local associations and groups, or simply solidarity volunteers, along with workers from the Municipal Brigade, have formed a very operational work team, coordinated by the Town Hall, which will continue to operate for days.

Moreover, thanks to the collaboration of a group of volunteers from transport companies and the Alicante and Alicante Norte National Police Stations, Sant Joan has become a departure point for essential goods, reaching where they are most needed.

In addition to this deployment of collaborators, the participation of four local police officers from Sant Joan, who have been involved in the recovery efforts of municipalities affected by the DANA, should be noted. On Sunday, November 17th, the two officers and two agents travelled to the Valencian town of Aldaia, under the coordination of the Valencian Agency for Security and Emergency Response. The four police officers, in two patrol cars, went to the devastated area on the date and location assigned by the Generalitat's emergency agency.

The mayor of Sant Joan d'Alacant, Santiago Román, the Security Councillor, Nicolás López, and the Chief Commissioner, Pablo Lizón, attended to thank the commitment and generosity of these volunteers who carried out their work that day for the benefit of the citizens of Aldaia.