Community spirit
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Lorena Cádiz
Benalmádena
Friday, 6 September 2024, 15:34
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Mercedes is known as the Duchess. If you see her, you won't need to ask why. Her perfectly coiffed hair and her smart dress make it clear. At 93 years old, Mercedes retains her beauty and is not willing to neglect her appearance, even at the beach. Mercedes gets around using a walker, or with the help of another person, because her mobility is reduced. "I can't go anywhere on my own," she says, and is therefore looking forward to Monday morning.
For Mercedes, Monday is the best day of the week in the summer. It is when the Agrupación de Voluntarios de Benalmádena (Benalmádena volunteer group) rings at her door and helps her into a specially adapted vehicle which picks up disabled people in the area and brings them to spend the morning on the beach. "If it weren't for them, it would be impossible for me to come here. I was born in Pedregalejo, I love the beach, I love the sea, if it were up to me I would come three or four times a week."
María is 80 years old and, until recently, was very active. Among other activities, she was part of a group in Arroyo de la Miel which met at 7am every morning to go for a walk and a swim in the sea. When she broke her hip, she was no longer able to take part, and essentially lost her autonomy. She, too, is picked up every Monday by the volunteers, who take her to spend time on the beach, at the adapted bathing area in Malapesquera.
Here, there are shaded areas, tables, chairs and adapted wheelchairs used to enter the water with the help of lifeguards. At the beach, members of the Benalmádena Volunteer Group help those they have picked up into the adapted wheelchairs, help them out once they are on the beach, and then do a bit of everything: from having a chat and applying sunscreen, to accompanying those who don't want to go into the sea to sit by the seafront. With a watering can, volunteers use seawater to keep them cool.
Juan Díaz Zafra is the president of the volunteer group, which has been running since 2017. He says that until last year, around 20 people with reduced mobility participated in the beach programme, most of them elderly residents. This year the number has doubled, and they now have 43 participants. The group has extended the help it offers to residents of Benalmádena Pueblo, in addition to those of Arroyo de la Miel and Benalmádena Costa. Up until this point they had one vehicle, financed by the council, but this year they have two.
"For them it is life, this is their only outing," says Díaz. In winter, instead of going to the beach, the group runs an accessible dance programme. "In most cases, the day we go with them is the only day they go out during the week, the only day they do anything outside their homes. If we fail them, they don't do anything else." That is why the president is appealing for more volunteers. He says that although there are around 100 volunteers in the group, "the reality is that when it comes down to it, it is always the same people helping, and there are no more than ten or twelve of us".
Meanwhile, Benalmádena town hall recently announced that there would be two new adapted bathing areas in the municipality.
In addition to those that currently exist in Torrebermeja-Malapesquera and Los Maites-Arroyo de la Miel, others are due to be added in the Fuente de la Salud area and in Carvajal.
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