When torrential rains swept across eastern Spain in 2024, they unleashed one of the most catastrophic floods the Valencia region had seen in living memory. Among the worst-hit areas was the small town of Paiporta, where entire neighbourhoods were submerged, homes were rendered uninhabitable, businesses destroyed, and streets turned into rivers of thick, suffocating mud.
But out of the devastation came an extraordinary response. Young people - many still students - arrived in numbers to unflinchingly clear debris, carry water, and comfort strangers.
