Valencia Work Camp 2025: A Very Special Volunteering Experience

Last Saturday, the volunteer work camp in Valencia came to an end. It brought together 27 young people, accompanied by a team of six coordinators, who collaborated both with three of the childhood and youth projects run by Itaka-Escolapios in Valencia—Amaltea, Llum, and Saó—and with various organizations in Catarroja, Torrent, and Paiporta that are helping people affected by the DANA last October.

These were days of discovery, activities and games, training sessions, living together, and most importantly, serving others—especially young children and those who suffer the most in our communities. Days to look beyond ourselves and see reality with new eyes.

We just want to say thank you to everyone who made this very special work camp possible: to the coordination team for their availability and nearly 24/7 work even before the camp started; to the school @San José de Calasanz for opening their doors to host this volunteer experience; and to Escola Pia Algemesí for sharing their firsthand testimony about the day of the DANA and its aftermath; to the Saó, Llum, and Amaltea projects and to the organizations “Adopta un mayor,” Estem Association, Volunteer Platform of the Valencian Community, Fundació Horta Sud, and Red Solidaria Popular for welcoming us and letting us collaborate; to the Third Sector Platform and the Ministry of Social Rights, Consumer Affairs, and Agenda 2030, for their support through the subsidy for the social protection of groups affected by the DANA; and to the people who delivered the training sessions during these weeks.

And of course, thank you to the volunteers who came from Valencia, Santander, Vitoria, Madrid, Getafe, Soria, Pamplona, and Versailles for their service following in the footsteps of Saint Joseph Calasanz, working with the most vulnerable. We hope it was a wonderful volunteering experience that becomes a way of life in service of others.

See you soon!