MEET JOSEPH MATHEATAU
BLIND BARISTA & MOTIVATIONAL SPEAKER
“I’m Joseph Matheatau. I am a barista without sight. I’m proud to be blind. I lost my sight, but I never lost my dreams and goals in life. I came across lots of challenges, but I never gave up and never will. I may not see the rays of the sun nor the rain drops, but I can feel it on my skin.”
EDUCATION WAS THE ONLY WAY
Joseph Matheatau (43) was about 3 years old when he noticed that he was different from the other children. He couldn’t see with his right eye and the sight in his left eye was very poor. He learned from a very young age to use his sense of hearing to identify people by their voices. During winter months, Joseph stayed home as he was unable to navigate his way to school.
His hometown, Balaclava in Thaba ‘Nchu did not have the facilities to accommodate visually impaired persons, but still Joseph went back to school every year. Joseph was determined to make something of his life and he knew the only way to do so was to get a good education.
BY THE TIME HE SAW A SPECIALIST THE CONDITION WAS TOO FAR GONE
Joseph was diagnosed with glaucoma – a condition that causes damage to your eye’s optic nerve and gets worse over time. If damage to the optic nerve from high eye pressure continues, glaucoma often causes permanent loss of vision. Without treatment, it can cause total permanent blindness, which is what happened to Joseph. By the time he saw a specialist the condition was too far gone. “When I heard I’d never get my sight back, I tried to stay calm, but there was a big hole in my heart.” From a young age Joseph watched his grandfather’s careful ritual of brewing tea on the fire, as there was no electricity. Joseph said he could never understand why his mother always asked him, as a blind person, to make tea for her when he visited. Till one day when she said to him: “You might not be able to see, but you can still make it in life and making the best cup of tea is a good start.”
“It was very difficult when I went completely blind. I had to adapt. I had to learn to shave without looking at myself in the mirror and dress myself without seeing the clothes. Learning how to cook, clean and iron without seeing what I was doing and to walk was difficult at first, but I had to train my mind to master all these things.”
A FIRST FOR SOUTH AFRICA
Joseph landed in Worcester in 2014 to further his studies at Innovation for the Blind’s Career Development Department (now known as The Hein Wagner Academy). He completed his marketing management course including entrepreneurship, business and sales management. The very same year Innovation for the Blind was looking for a student to be trained as a barista and they saw a determined blind young man with a million dollar smile that can light up the world of the blind. Together with Truth Coffee Roasters they started the journey of training the first blind barista in South Africa.
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