Child finds his mother after 5 years on the streets

As soon as I got down from an auto-rickshaw on Syed Nazrul Islam Sarani in the capital, I spotted the group of street children. They already knew me. One of them said, “Brother, you’ve come.” I asked where Saidul, 12, was.

By then, Saidul’s mother, Fatema Akter, and father, Md Mostafa Kamal, had also gotten down from the auto-rickshaw. One of the street children pointed out where Saidul was. He was standing at the entrance of an alley.

Seeing him, his mother quickly walked over and embraced him, breaking into tears. A little later, his father also hugged him. The child was reunited with his parents after five years.

This is the story of a street child returning to his family. It became possible because of a post on Prothom Alo’s Facebook page. The post was published last Monday evening.

It said that Saidul wanted to return home, mentioning that his home was in Muradnagar of Cumilla, along with the names of his parents. However, Saidul did not know his full address.

The Facebook post spread quickly. I kept an eye on the comments under it. I contacted those who claimed to recognise him through Messenger.

At one point, a Facebook account named ‘Rodela Akash’ commented, “I know him, he is my brother-in-law’s son.” I immediately sent a message. The person shared a mobile phone number. When I called, the person on the other end claimed to be Saidul’s grandfather. After verification, I asked him to come to the Prothom Alo office the next day.

I met Saidul four days ago. 12 April was International Day for Street Children. While working on a report related to the day, I spoke with street children in different parts of the capital.

On 10 April, I met a group in the Purana Paltan area. Saidul was one of them. He told me that he had accidentally boarded a train as a child and ended up in Dhaka. He wanted to go home but did not know the exact address.

Saidul had said that after coming to Dhaka, driven by hunger, he started working at scrap shops dealing in old metal. He collected bottles and survived by seeking help from people. He lived under a banyan tree on Shaheed Syed Nazrul Islam Sarani (Bijoynagar area). The group of street children had become his family.

That day, Saidul had told me, “Brother, I want to go home. Please take me home.” I had promised to try my best to reunite him with his family.

After completing the report on street children, on 13 April I requested senior colleagues at Prothom Alo to publish a Facebook post about Saidul. A photo card was published in the evening.

As of 7:30 pm yesterday (Tuesday), more than 34,000 Facebook users had reacted to the post. There were 815 comments, and the photo card had been shared 6,200 times from Prothom Alo’s Facebook page. Many had also downloaded and shared it.

At around 9:30 pm on the night the photo card was published, I received a call from an unknown number. The caller introduced himself as Borhan Uddin, claiming to be Saidul’s paternal uncle. He said he lived in Dhanmondi 27 and wanted to go to Saidul that very night. I asked him to come to the Prothom Alo office.

It was close to 11:00 pm. I was at the Prothom Alo office with a friend. Borhan arrived, along with two others. They had a photo of the child from when he went missing and copies of the parents’ national identity cards. He said Saidul’s parents had already set out from Chattogram.

Many people were contacting me regarding the child. When I informed colleagues, they advised me that it would be better to hand Saidul over to his parents in the presence of police during the day. I asked Borhan Uddin to bring Saidul’s parents the next day.

Concerned for the child’s safety, I went to the Purana Paltan area that same night with a friend. It was around 12:30 am. The streets were deserted. The group of street children was not where they had said they would be. I began searching. I met several children from the group; they recognised me and said, “Fuad bhai, he was with us. Wait here, we’ll find him.”

I searched with them around the Secretariat metro rail station, the Kakrail-bound road, and the Motijheel-bound road, but could not find Saidul anywhere.

It was past 1:00 am, and we were still searching. At one point, other street children said they had a mobile phone and asked me to leave my number so they could call me when they found Saidul.

Disheartened, as I was looking for an auto-rickshaw to go home, I spotted Saidul at the mouth of an alley. I asked him to come to my home with me, but he refused. I then told him not to go with anyone and that his parents were on their way to Dhaka. Hearing this, he broke down in tears.

Saidul’s mother, father, one brother, one sister, and his uncle Borhan Uddin came to the Prothom Alo office on Tuesday morning. From them, I learned that Saidul’s father, Mostafa Kamal, is an auto-rickshaw mechanic, and his mother, Fatema, works in a garment factory. Saidul is their first child. They now have four children.

Mostafa Kamal brought Saidul’s vaccination card, their national identity cards, and childhood photos of Saidul with the family as proof. He said Saidul went missing from Chattogram at the age of six. He filed a general diary, placed newspaper advertisements, made public announcements in the area, and even sought help from kabiraj, but could not find his son. Still, he never lost hope.

I took Saidul’s parents, siblings, and uncle to Purana Paltan. There, upon finding their son, the parents were overwhelmed with emotion. Fatema said she had never imagined they would get their eldest son back. She repeatedly expressed gratitude to me and to Prothom Alo.

As we prepared to go to the police station, it was time for Saidul to say goodbye to his friends. He hugged them, shook hands, and bid them farewell. I took photos on my phone.

Around 12:00 pm, we went to Paltan Model police station with Saidul and his family. I explained the entire situation to the police. They called in child protection social worker Shahnaz Moni.

The officer-in-charge, Mohammad Mostafa Kamal Khan, completed the legal procedures and formally handed Saidul over to his family. The police praised the efforts to reunite him with his family.

Saidul’s parents took him to their village home in Cumilla yesterday, where his grandparents are waiting to see him. Before leaving, I asked Saidul how he felt about being reunited with his parents. His one-word answer: “Good.” As he left in a rickshaw, he waved goodbye, smiling.