Lost Son by Myra

Cynthia Botes, currently working as a kitchen assistant at MES, had no hope of a relationship with her three year old son.

In 2007 Cynthia gave birth to a beautiful little boy, but within five months he was moved to a place of safety (temporary foster parents), due to the fact that they were living on the street.

In the same year during November, Cynthia was found on the street by Joseph Fredericks, who heads our ministry and outreach department, through one of our outreach programmes. The staff at MES assisted her in finding accommodation at the Elim Night Shelter in Elsies River, which earned her the rights to start a visitation process with her son.

At first her son didn’t recognise her which made her feel really sad; however, as time progressed they started bonding slowly but surely.

Her son was placed with a foster family in 2008 where the visitations with her son continued and they shared precious moments of laughter and happiness. Then the unfortunate happened. In 2009 Cynthia moved out of Elim Night Shelter into a Wendy house in Uitsig and the regular visitations came to an end.

MES recognised the reversal in progress and acted accordingly. As part of Cynthia’s road to recovery and becoming a responsible parent, the social worker at MES reinstated the visitations and she now sees him twice a month. The aim is to increase these visitations gradually over the next year in order to reach three to four visitations per week.

Cynthia is showing amazing growth and feels more relaxed and self assured when she visits her little boy. Her son meets her eagerly, takes her hand and leads her to the room where they play with his toys and interact freely. He tells her about his friends and teacher at the crèche and started calling her 'mommy' which gave Cynthia a great sense of satisfaction.

Cynthia: "My child now learns to get to know me."