Dutch Sultana searches for her roots with one document and an obscure vision of home

A market next to a railway station is all that she remembers of her original home.

Sultana Van de Leest has returned from the Netherlands to look for her roots 37 years after parting with her homeland, Bangladesh.

Besides that blurred vision, the only other thing reminiscent of her roots is the copy of a document from an international organisation that had handled her adoption.

Sultana held a press conference at the Chittagong Press Club with her husband, Joris Jacobs, and son, Noah Abed Nabilah Jacobs, by her side on Thursday.

Jacobs, a designer, had inspired her to begin a search for her long-lost roots, said Sultana, a primary school teacher, to reporters.

“I have no memory of my childhood. All I know is that I was adopted from Bangladesh.”  

“There was a train station with a market next to it… there was something going on in there … that is the only memory I have of where I come from.”

One Rahima Khatun of Chittagong’s Dohazari had handed over her 4-year-old granddaughter ‘Sultana’ to the Netherlands Inter Country Child Welfare Organisation for adoption in 1979.

A childless couple from the Dutch town of Eindhoven adopted her and gave her the surname, Van de Leest.

“My parents are called Chris and Thea. S Kamal is their other child adopted from Bangladesh. We grew up as brothers and sisters.”

“Growing up, I never felt like I was adopted.” But a strong yearning for her roots brought her back, she said. 

Slobe Bangladesh, a development organisation, has been helping Sultana in piecing together the remains of her childhood.

Slobe official Ismail Sharif said, “All Sultana has is a affidavit copy of her hand-over. It is possible to find her family with the help of that document.”

It says she was born on Jan 8, 1975 at Dohazari, then under Chittagong’s Patia Upazila.

The place is now under Chandnaish Upazila. “We have contacted the UNO, union council chairman of Chandnaish for help,” said Sharif. 

Rahima Khatun, her paternal grandmother, had cited the death of Sultana’s parents and her own inability to bring her up as the reason for giving the child for adopting.

The document named Kadam Ali as Sultana’s grandfather.

“I’ll return and look for myself in my country, Bangladesh, even if I don’t find my roots or family,” she said.

Sultana will be in Dohazari on Thursday and Friday. She will remain in Bangladesh until Feb 11.