Wendy Dyckhoff’s life is not what it used to be.
Three years ago, aged 53, this determined ‘battler’ enrolled in a general education course at Kangan Institute to study the basics of literacy and numeracy, alongside migrants and refugees for whom English was a second language.
Education has been Ms Dyckhoff’s gateway to the outside world ever since.
At the age of six, she had been taken from an abusive home, along with four siblings, and placed into institutional care. She was put in a family unit at Nazareth Girls House until her ninth birthday then sent to St Catherine’s orphanage at Geelong.
While a ward of the state, she was physically and emotionally abused.
“They don’t make you feel special in an orphanage,” she said.
She now uses a crutch and has especially tailored shoes to help her walk. Doctors have traced the deformities to her time at the orphanage when she was forced to squeeze her feet into shoes far too small for a growing child.
The importance of an education did not top the nuns’ priority list. Children were ordered to remain silent and perform cleaning chores when not in the classroom.
Ms Dyckhoff attended secondary school but was never told she had been offered a scholarship to a more academic school.
“They never told me about it so I thought I was dumb and stupid,” she said. She began a relationship with a young man when she was 16 and fell pregnant midway through year 11, which forced her to drop out of school.
“We were never educated about contraception or the changes that happen to a woman’s body,” she said.
While battling post traumatic stress disorder and mental health issues she gave birth to her daughter, Amber, who she describes as her “inspiration”, and “everything I wanted to be”.
This week, the state government will honour Ms Dyckhoff for speaking out on behalf of 500,000 forgotten Australians, who were institutionalised in 20th century Australia.
She wrote to the Royal Commission on Institutional Responses to Child Sex Abuse and is helping others robbed of their childhoods to get help also.
The Broadmeadows resident was a finalist in last year’s Learn Local awards, and will be recognised for turning her life around during this week’s Adult Learners Week.
