The story that will be discussed today is about an unusual event, which is related to the finding of a baby in a garbage can, who was later adopted by French parents. He was only a few hours old when he was left there. A baby, hastily wrapped, abandoned in a garbage can, on a street in Ferizaj. No one knows what the mother thought in those moments, whether she cried, whether she turned to look back, or whether fear and despair were stronger than the mother's instinct.
Today, Zbardhimi lives in France, adopted by a French family who gave him a name, a home and love. He grew up with a different language, a different culture, but with a wound that never fully healed. Even though he is now a mature man, even though he does not speak Albanian, his earliest memories have no words, they have feelings, while the question of why he was abandoned still haunts him.
He doesn't look for the guilty, he doesn't look for revenge, he looks for his roots. He wants to know if his mother is still alive, if she ever thought about him. If there was a reason that pushed him to leave her on the street, in a city that today he only knows by one name: Ferizaj.
In an exclusive account for the show "With an Open Heart" by author and moderator Evis Ahmeti, he recounted the moment he learned the truth.
"I learned the truth when I was 5 years old, that I had been adopted when I was 3 months old. My French parents told me the truth. I was watching a cartoon where there were three ducks, two yellow ones and a human. They told me that the black duck was me because I was not born into that family. At the time I didn't say anything, but when I grew up I started asking about my biological family and looking for my mother.
My mother gave birth to me and left me on the side of the road near a garbage can, where the Kosovo police found me, and they took me to the hospital in Pristina.
Then there was a Serbian woman named Nadja who was involved in human trafficking, who brought me to France where I was adopted. She sold me for 60 francs.
When I was found in Ferizaj, my adoptive parents told me that the police had done all the research and investigations to find his mother, but that they had not been able to find anything. He was then sent to an orphanage in Pristina, but a Serb named Nadia trafficked me to France.
"I have no photo or name related to my past in Ferizaj," he said.
