People with masks and soldier remove mud in a flooded street on November 6, 2024, in Catarroja, in the region of Valencia, eastern Spain, in the aftermath of deadly floods. (Photo by CESAR MANSO / AFP)
Valencia, Spain: Young volunteers have spearheaded a humanitarian campaign for victims of Spain's deadliest floods in decades, smashing stereotypes of an apathetic and feeble "snowflake generation" interested in nothing other than themselves.
"Hundreds, perhaps thousands have come, they have conducted themselves magnificently," said Noelia Saez, a 48-year-old from the devastated town of Catarroja.
The altruism also overjoyed 62-year-old Teresa Gisbert, a resident of the ruined town of Sedavi, where dozens of young volunteers rushed to assist as mud covered the streets and her home.
"They bring us food, they have helped us... they are angels," she told AFP.
Their towns are in the eastern Valencia region, where almost all the destruction and the more than 200 deaths have been recorded since the floods struck a week ago.
With the authorities absent from some of the worst-affected areas for days, an army of ordinary citizens travelled on foot to provide food, water and cleaning equipment to clear the mud.
Youths have been at the forefront of this wave of solidarity and were at work again in Catarroja on Wednesday, loading trucks with fresh supplies, an AFP journalist saw.
It was a far cry from stereotypes caricaturing the generation born in this millennium as self-centred "snowflakes" addicted to endless scrolling on social media.
"The elderly are always going to say that people who aren't from their generation are worse," said Angela Noblejas, a 19-year-old industrial engineering student.
"But now that they've given us an opportunity, that maybe they wouldn't have given us, because it's not a good situation, we young have responded pretty well."
