عربي English Türkçe اردو فارسى
Logo
Latest News
Varieties

Moroccan Beach Offers Disabled People Opportunity to Swim on Floating Chairs

Small blue fishing boats crowded together in harbour with white medina walls in background, Essaouira, Morocco. (Getty Images)
Small blue fishing boats crowded together in harbour with white medina walls in background, Essaouira, Morocco. (Getty Images)
TT
20
TT

Moroccan Beach Offers Disabled People Opportunity to Swim on Floating Chairs

Small blue fishing boats crowded together in harbour with white medina walls in background, Essaouira, Morocco. (Getty Images)
Small blue fishing boats crowded together in harbour with white medina walls in background, Essaouira, Morocco. (Getty Images)

A row of wheelchairs floats on the water in a beach in the northern Moroccan city of Tangier, awaiting the arrival of disabled visitors wishing to swim in the sea.

Alongside the chairs, a team of volunteers is waiting to drive wheelchairs on a ramp designed to help people with disabilities move in and out of water.

These equipment and volunteers on the Dalia beach are part of an initiative aimed at supporting people with special needs who want to swim.

Once in the water, the wheelchair floats, and the volunteers surround swimmers to maintain their safety.

This summer, up to 580 visitors with special needs swam in the waters of Dalia beach, giving them the opportunity to swim freely in a controlled environment, with some swimming for the first time in their lives.

A woman, Rahimo, happily waved to her daughter with Down syndrome swimming in the sea.

"We used to see disabled people marginalized. They weren't able to enjoy like now. They had many obstacles, didn't have full freedom to enjoy the beach like others, and couldn't swim like everyone else. They have the will, and now there is a big difference," she told Reuters.

"Frankly, I like the Dalia beach, because it is the first in Morocco to bring swimming facilities," said Bilal al-Ashhab, a visitor with special needs. "In Dalia Beach, you swim like ordinary people, there is no difference. I thank the young volunteers and hope to see the initiative spread on all shores across the Kingdom.”

Services and assistance for people with disabilities on the beach are free of charge.

Najwa al-Musallam, a volunteer who helps these people, said: "Seeing them happy after swimming for the first time is our biggest reward."

The initiative was founded by Mohamed el-Hisho al-Mertah, president of the Sahel Association for Development and Culture in 2015, who noticed that people with special needs do not feel comfortable while on the beach.

"From 2015 until now, we were observing a group of families bringing their disabled members. We clearly saw that they were uncomfortable on the beach, and felt deprived. So, we launched a small initiative and helped them with modest capacities," al-Hisho said.

Most Viewed

 
Varieties

Scientists: Ancient Jawbone from Taiwan Belongs to Mysterious Group of Human Ancestors

This illustration provided by researchers in April 2025 depicts a Denisovan male in Taiwan in the Pleistocene era about 2.6 million to 11,700 years ago. (Cheng-Han Sun via AP)
This illustration provided by researchers in April 2025 depicts a Denisovan male in Taiwan in the Pleistocene era about 2.6 million to 11,700 years ago. (Cheng-Han Sun via AP)
TT
20
TT

Scientists: Ancient Jawbone from Taiwan Belongs to Mysterious Group of Human Ancestors

This illustration provided by researchers in April 2025 depicts a Denisovan male in Taiwan in the Pleistocene era about 2.6 million to 11,700 years ago. (Cheng-Han Sun via AP)
This illustration provided by researchers in April 2025 depicts a Denisovan male in Taiwan in the Pleistocene era about 2.6 million to 11,700 years ago. (Cheng-Han Sun via AP)

An ancient jawbone discovered in Taiwan belonged to an enigmatic group of early human ancestors called Denisovans, scientists reported Thursday.
Relatively little is known about Denisovans, an extinct group of human cousins that interacted with Neanderthals and our own species, Homo sapiens.
“Denisovan fossils are very scarce,” with only a few confirmed finds in East Asia, said study co-author Takumi Tsutaya at the Graduate University for Advanced Studies in Japan.
So far, the only known Denisovan fossils include partial jawbones, a few teeth and part of a finger bone found in caves in Siberia and Tibet. Some scientists believe fossils found in a cave in Laos may also belong to Denisovans, The Associated Press reported.
The probable identification of the jawbone from Taiwan as Denisovan expands the region where scientists know these ancient people once lived, said Tsutaya.
The partial jawbone was first recovered when a fishing operation dredged the seafloor in the Penghu Channel near the Taiwan Strait. After it was sold to an antique shop, a collector spotted it and purchased it in 2008, then later donated it to Taiwan’s National Museum of Natural Science.
Based on the composition of marine invertebrates found attached to it, the fossil was dated to the Pleistocene era. But exactly which species of early human ancestor it belonged to remained a mystery.
The condition of the fossil made it impossible to study ancient DNA. But recently, scientists in Taiwan, Japan and Denmark were able to extract some protein sequences from the incomplete jawbone.
An analysis showed some protein sequences resembled those contained in the genome of a Denisovan fossil recovered in Siberia. The findings were published in the journal Science.
While the new research is promising, Rick Potts, director of the Smithsonian Institution’s Human Origins Project, said he would like to see further data before confirming the Taiwan fossil as Denisovan.
Potts, who was not involved in the new research, praised the study for “a fantastic job of recovering some proteins.” But he added, such a small sliver of material may not give a full picture.
At one time, at least three human ancestor groups — Denisovans, Neanderthals and Homo sapiens — coexisted in Eurasia and sometimes interbred, researchers say.
“We can identity Neanderthal elements and Denisovan elements" in the DNA of some people alive today, said Tsutaya.