Disabled Mijas teen unable to get to school

A HANDICAPPED teenage girl in Mijas has missed her first week back to school because she has no means of transport to get there.

Fourteen-year-old Vanessa from La Cala de Mijas suffers from mobility problems connected with cerebral palsy and cannot hope to walk the eight kilometres from her house to school.

Her father is currently unemployed and has no means of transport, and the nearest bus stop is at least six kilometres from her house.

Vanessa’s father, Joao Luis, went to the school during the first week of September to try to find a solution to the problem.

He said: “My car broke down in July and I don’t have the money to fix it or buy a new one. Nor can I afford to pay for two taxis a day at €10 a time.”

Joao Luis says that the school sent him to see social services at Mijas Town Hall, who advised him to speak to the school again.

Lourdes Burgos, councillor for Education in Mijas Town Hall, has said that once the school has passed on the appropriate information to social services, the matter will be taken up at the town hall.

It seems that Vanessa may have to wait until Spain’s complicated bureaucracy sorts itself out.