For the specially abled, life is full of challenges but some among them chose to make an example for others like Mohammad Azeem who trained and swam a kilometre of the Periyar river in Kerala.

Fifteen-year-old Azeem who was born without hands swam the river by getting specially trained. He spent two weeks with Saji Valasseril, his coach at the latter’s house to receive training for two weeks.

Valasseril is known for training as many as 5,000 swimmers in the past 12 years of whom, a thousand have swum in Periyar. Besides training Azeem, his coach also accompanied him and swam with him at the Kozikode Aluva Mahadeva temple.

In February 2020, Valasseril trained Manoj R for 30 days, who then swam 600 metres in Periyar in 30 minutes. Manoj, who is a visually impaired child, was 11 years old then. For him it was a dream come true as he is fond of swimming and would cheer his friends and classmates when they would swim in the river.

According to Manoj’s father, this achievement gave a huge fillip to the child’s confidence.

Also read: Brimming with confidence, Advocate Harwinder Kaur shows the way for specially abled