𝗩𝗮𝗹𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗶𝗮'𝘀 𝗥𝗲𝘀𝗰𝘂𝗲𝗱 𝗣𝗲𝘁𝘀 🐈⬛🐕🦺
In Benimaclet, Valencia’s student district, women’s football club SPB Femenino has been converted into a pet rescue centre for animals displaced by the devastating floods that hit southern towns and neighbourhoods on 29 October.
“We’ve received hundreds of cats and dogs since the flood,” says Carol, one of the volunteers at the club. “Fortunately, most of them have already been reconnected with their families or, if not, they’ve been fostered until we can find their original owners.”
The pitch is now Spab Burjassot logistics centre to process lost pets, walk dogs, and store food and equipment. It was created to support other shelters that were over capacitated by the floods, or themselves destroyed. So far, the club has already received over 250 dogs, 110 cats and a few donkeys, pigs, ostriches and ducks. The CEU Clinical Hospital is working with the club to provide free care to the affected animals, as well as to the pets of families in the flood-affected zones.
Up to 1000 pets have gone missing since the floods in the south of Valencia. Volunteers from the club, as well as independent members of the public, are still searching for roaming pets among the mud and debris. The national government has just announced that it will allocate a budget of €390,000 to animal shelters affected by the DANA to help with moving costs, new accommodation and destroyed materials such as beds and pet food – this allocation of funds to rescue pets is the first of its kind in Spain.
While I’m at the club, a car with two kittens arrives. Volunteers and vets work quickly, trying their best to keep the animals as calm as possible while moving and treating them. If all is well, the animals will be fostered. “We interview everyone who offers to foster to make sure they have adequate facilities and enough space to take care of the pets until they can be reco
𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗪𝗼𝗿𝗸𝗲𝗿𝘀 ✊🏾
"Vamos. Una, dos, tres!”
The volunteers and public services making Valencia's recovery possible.
150,000 people marched today, chanting, whistling and shaking our house keys in the largest housing protest the country has ever seen 💪🏾🔑
The government cannot ignore the demands of citizens for a housing law that actually works 🪧🏘️📢✊🏾
Last night, the legendary shoe shop on Calle Tribulete 7 closed. The entire barrio of Lavapiés suffers another loss and begins another period of mourning. But one beautiful way to process such difficult moments is to celebrate the life we lost. Somehow, by doing this, you feel a sense of permanency like the place may no longer exist but its soul will live forever, especially when it is carried in the hearts of an entire neighbourhood ❤️👠❤️
Follow my brand new documentary in-the-making on Instagram: www.instagram.com/soytribulete7
Lavapiés a la fresca 🌤️❄️🃏✨
Neighbours playing cards on Plaza Lavapiés, enjoying the last cool weekend we'll have for a while 😌
Lavapiés showed up en masse for yesterday's Lavapiés al Límite rebellion against gentrification! 🪧🪧🪧
Over 30 collectives and neighbours performed a tour of resistance, chanting, singing and dancing through our streets. We stopped at some of the barrio's most important corners, including @estaesunaplaza_oficial to show the amazing space they provide for the barrio's children and mothers, and @vecinostribulete7 to support their fight against being evicted by vulture fund ✊🏾
Lavapiés has reached breaking point with gentrification which, on the ground, looks like an increase in police violence, racist attacks, evictions by vulture funds and an invasion of illegal tourist apartments. It is an unsustainable situation but we will not give up the fight to reclaim our neighbourhood 💪🏾❤️🔥✨
This weekend, from 22-25 May, Madrid is hosting a real estate fair in IFEMA and a round of fringe events, including this award ceremony for Spain's biggest vulture funds, estate agencies, housing developers and speculators.
Yes, you can win an award for property speculation and they rent out our public spaces to host the ceremony.
Yesterday evening, housing activists secretly mobilised to interface with the very people who are, and have, purchased their homes, including Elix Rental Housing who has recently purchased three Madrid blocks, including Vecinos de Tribulete7.
This was a rare opportunity for property investors to meet the people whose lives they're playing with. Some laughed at us, while others were open to a peaceful dialogue on the street.
🎥 Elisa González
No matter what they tell you, journalism is biased. To have an impartial article is to side with the oppressor because, without challenging them, you aren’t challenging their power – you are handing it to them on a plate.
Sure, give the vulture fund the right to reply, but don’t give their quote equal weighting to the elderly gay couple they are evicting. Question the government on why the Cañada Real has been without electricity for four years, but don’t let them have the last word. Let the mayor give his take on why it's a good idea to prioritise cars and remove municipal benches from streets, squares and parks, but let the abuelo speak louder! 📢
Storytelling is about so much more than telling stories, it’s about empowering communities, and this is exactly what I do in Madrid No Frills, and for the Guardian, the BBC, El País and more. I find, research, and produce stories with one intention: to challenge power! And I do this in plain sight ✊🏾
Would you like to learn how to do this too? Enrol onto my brand-new storytelling course now and I'll show you exactly how it's done!
🎓 Three face-to-face workshops
🗓️ Wed 22, 29 May & Tue 4 June from 19h to 21h
🏠 In Espacio Loseta, Lavapiés
✍🏾 Limited places
🔗 All course info: https://madridnofrills.com/storytellers-of-the-future/
💪🏾 Enrol today!
There are many versions of Lavapiés that can be shown through video, such as these peaceful scenes that I filmed this morning. But, to truly understand what this barrio is, you need to experience day-to-day life here. If you can't, then perhaps someone who lives here can tell you what it's like.
The purpose of this blog, and journalism as a whole, is to help people make sense and order of what’s going on around us, and to engage, inform and empower the public. So let me show you how it's done.
In my brand-new three-week course, Storytellers of the Future beginning Wednesday 22 May, I show you how to cover the stories that no one else will, and report on the big stories in your own way. Learn how to investigate, interview, photograph and report.
And learn how to create your own niche and begin your journey as a confident storyteller championing the stories that you want to tell, just like I do for MNF, and El País, BBC, Guardian and more.
🎓 Who can enrol?
This course is for anyone interested in blogging, journalism and photography – no experience or equipment needed.
🎓 Three face-to-face workshops
🗓️ Wednesdays 22, 29 May & 5 June from 19h to 21h
💞 In Espacio Loseta Lavapiés (featured in this video)
🧑🎓 20-student capacity (15 places left)
Find the full course information and syllabus, follow the link below and enrol today! 👇🏾
https://madridnofrills.com/journalists-of-the-future-course/
Music, theatre and art are weapons of protest in Lavapiés. The barrio's culture does not belong to tourists, investors or even the city council. It is not a commodity for gentrification; it belongs to us and we will use it to fight the eviction of the neighbours at Tribulete 7! 🎼🎷🥁🎻🐤✊🏾
📷 Still imagery by Eli González
The seven-decade evolution of Pan Bendito (1954 to 2024) from wheat fields to today 🌾🌇
The working-class barrio was conceived as provisional short-term housing to accommodate a population growth spurt. By 1998, Pan Bendito had a metro station (L11) and all original blocks had been demolished. New, larger housing units were completed for residents, comprising mid- to high-rise blocks with communal gardens surrounded by wide, mostly pedestrianised streets, and large overground parking areas.
📰 Read more in my previous post.
🎶 Ruido, a collaboration including Langui who grew up in Pan Bendito.
Images © geoportal and © Google Maps
