MOTHER TO MANY
Matthysen beats odds to make success of initiative helping the youth
SOCIAL worker, office manager, mother, friend, wife, confidant and a lifeline. These are just some of the words used to describe Sanchia Matthysen, who runs the ACVV Kamvalethu Drop-In Centre in Korsten, Port Elizabeth. The 45-year-old mother of five has worked at the centre for almost three years, two of those as office manager.
“We house all the children people don’t want. They come in from the age of two until their 20s. I never want to turn a kid away because I’m thinking if I turn them away here, where will they go, what will they do and in the end, that doesn’t serve them or me,” Matthysen said.
The centre is run by board members Matthysen reports to and they also receive a bit of government funding that Matthysen subsidises to buy food and pay volunteers, who help out at the youth centre.
“We’ve only got myself and two auxiliary workers, three contract teachers, who run our basic education classes for English, Afrikaans and mathematics and other volunteers,” Matthysen said.
The social worker said there was a need in the community for a school as some of the children could not gain entry into regular schools and the centre provided them with the necessary skills to re-enter normal schooling.
When Kamvalethu opened doors at the beginning of 2013, it had about 12 to 14 children attending the centre.
It now has roughly 45 to 50 children coming in daily.
Kamvalethu specialises in working with street children and was established to address and assist in breaking the cycle of poverty by encouraging street children and empowering them to be able to become positive functioning members of society.
“When children come to Kamvalethu, we provide them with two meals a day and not only that, we’ve got education programmes running and they don’t have to sit idly and not do anything.
“If a child was used to standing a street corner for five, maybe eight hours begging, and now stands for only one hour begging, because they have come here, that is an improvement to me,” Matthysen said.
Born with cystic hygroma – a growth that normally appears on a newborn baby’s head or neck – Matthysen said she understood what it felt like being an outsider looking in. By the time she was two, she had already had 23 surgeries.
“Growing up I was always teased and bullied because of how I looked, but over time I learnt to accept it and I persevered, overcame it and made a success of my life,” Matthysen said.
Luthando Vaaltyn, 19, is one of the volunteers at the drop-in centre .
Without the centre’s help, he would have landed in jail, he said, or even worse – dead.
“I was 13 years old, when I joined a gang and by the time I was 14, I was already involved in my first knife-fight and shot at numerous times. I started coming here last year because I saw that my life wasn’t going anywhere and Sam [Matthysen] through movies like The Cross and the Switch Blade, taught me that there was someone who loved me and that person is God,” Vaaltyn said.
Former gang leader, Joshwin Hufkie, 26, who was recently released from prison after spending five years behind bars, said he wanted to be an example for the children who came to Kamvalethu that there was “no future in being part of a gang”.
“My parents died when I was 13 and I was left on my own to fend for myself. “I joined a gang and eventually became a leader.
“I didn’t respect or care for anyone, but only for those in my gang. But the thing about a gang is, it’s all fake, I was looking for love in all the wrong places, the love I wanted and needed from my parents.
“Kamvalethu has played a huge part in me stopping to use drugs,” Hufkie said.
Upon being asked whether working at Kamvalethu had affected her personal life, Matthysen, who has been married for 16 years, said she tried to involve her family in certain aspects of the centre. “My kids come here and play with the children that visit the centre and they are all friends.
“I surround myself with volunteers like Luthando and Joshwin because they know what it’s like to be these children because they’ve lived through similar circumstances and they can relate to each other,” Matthysen said.
Seven children who have been through the Kamvalethu programme have already returned to mainstream schools after participating in education programmes at the centre.