Sultana returning to Netherlands; failed to find her roots in Bangladesh

Sultana Van de Leest, who came to Bangladesh from the Netherlands in search for her roots, is returning home, unable to locate her place of origin.

Chittagong Bureaubdnews24.com
Published : 7 Feb 2016, 08:24 PM
Updated : 7 Feb 2016, 08:24 PM

She visited several railway stations with a market next to them in Chittagong's Dohazari since her arrival on Feb 1 but none seemed to match the one etched on her memory.

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

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.

She left Chittagong on Sunday for Dhaka with her husband, Joris Jacobs, and son, Noah Abed Nabilah Jacobs, to visit several projects run by Slobe Bangladesh, a development organisation that has been helping Sultana in piecing together the remains of her childhood.

Sultana will be in Bangladesh until Feb 11.

Jacobs, a designer, had inspired her to begin a search for her long-lost roots, primary school teacher Sultana told the media on Thursday.

“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 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. Their other child adopted from Bangladesh is called S Kamal. We grew up as brother and sister.”

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

Slobe official Ismail Sharif said, “All Sultana has is an 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 adoption.

The document named Kadam Ali as Sultana’s grandfather.