Providing children with a safe home where ubuntu is thriving

MATLAKALA Makhubela makes raising children look like child’s play. Not only has the 62-year-old raised three of her own children, but, in the wake of the death of her parents when she was 18, she dropped out of school and raised her 11 siblings.

“At a young age I had to learn how to be a mother. It was very difficult, but I had to do it. I gave up my dreams of studying to work and put food on the table,” she said.

Makhubela said the experience had laid the foundation for her life’s work: creating a place of safety for needy children in the home she established in Atteridgeville, west of Pretoria, 22 years ago.

Leamogetswe Safety Home takes care of more than 100 vulnerable, orphaned and neglected children, with 82 of them living there permanently, and 25 others coming after school for food and help with their homework.

Mama Joyce, as she is known by the children, said she was merely trying to do something that “people have forgotten”.

“The government says we must practise ubuntu, but most people don’t do that. Ubuntu is taking care of our children — placing them before us.”

Makhubela said that since she had established the home, she had poured all her energy into it.

“I am here 24 hours a day. I stay here and whenever I have to leave, I always phone to find out how my children are doing.”

She said she was proud of how successful the home was despite the lack of psychological and psychiatric services it had.

“We try really hard to treat the children like normal children, but sometimes they have a hard time at school or come with psychological problems because they were abused. It’s very challenging because these children are reserved, or hyper, or aggressive as a result of their past.”

Makhubela said that despite sleepless nights worrying about operational costs, owing the municipality more than R50 000, and grants not fully funding the organisation, success stories such as that of Musa Mahlala, 22, who is a second-year transport management student at the University of Johannesburg, kept her going.

“I am so proud of children such as Musa who are now at university and act as mentors for the younger children,” she said.

Mahlala, who wasn’t attending school when his parents abandoned him, moved into the house in 2006.

“I am so grateful to Mama Joyce,” he said. “Moving into the house in 2006 completely changed my life. I didn’t attend school and when I got there I was able to go to school again. It has made me a better person.”

Mahlala said he regarded Mama Joyce as his second mother. MULTITASKING: Adolphina Makhubela is the home’s administrator

Over the years, Makhubela has managed to expand the capacity of the home. When she established the home in 1994 she took in roughly 40 children off the streets of Pretoria.

The home has a computer lab, where children can to do their homework, and a library. It also has a vegetable garden and bakery, which are used to feed the children and generate income for the home.

The ages of the children at the home range from six months to 22 years and Makhubela said a programme to help the older children to gain their independence was in the pipeline.

“There’s no way I can say to an abused child: ‘You are now too old, you must go.’ I’m their mother and this is their home.

“They don’t know their way around . . . So we’re trying to establish a programme that will prepare them for adult life outside the home.”

Despite having reached the official age of retirement, Makhubela said she had no intention of stopping.

In fact, she plans to study in the near future.

Her daughter-in-law Adolphina CAREFREE: Children play on a paved area at Leamogetswe Safety Home

I was able to go to school again. It has made me a better person

Makhubela, who has been working as the home’s administrator for the past 11 years, said Mama Joyce was a hero and an inspiration.

“She has sacrificed so much for the children. There aren’t many people who can do what she does. She takes care of each of them like a mother would take care of her own children,” she said.

“Some of the children here are from very difficult backgrounds. We have to be strong for them so they can heal.”

Whenever I have to leave, I always phone to find out how my children are doing