Monday will be October 28. For most of you this is a completely ordinary day, but not for us, a Dutch family from Amsterdam. Another year has passed for us without Sophia. Our beautiful daughter went missing in Murchison Falls National Park on this date in 2015.

Even though nine years have passed, it still feels like Sophia left only a few months ago. I can still clearly see her standing at the check-in counter at Schiphol Airport. His huge backpack bought a week earlier from his father.

His sturdy hiking shoes bought a few days earlier at my mother’s house. Two months later, I found myself on the banks of the Nile, photographing one of these boots lying there in the tall grass. No trace of Sophia. I had a strong feeling that something was wrong.

After completing her medical degree, Sophia decided to take a gap year and came to Uganda to work as an intern at Rubaga Hospital in Kampala.

She really enjoyed her time there, completely immersed herself in the city, the people and the culture and even learned quite a bit about Luganda. After his passing, I met several of his local colleagues.

Everyone spoke highly of her, praising her open-mindedness, her dedication to patients, her willingness to do everything. Including cleaning the floors, if that was what was needed.

Once the internship was over, Sophia set off to explore Uganda with two fellow interns, before returning home. On the sixth day of her journey, she disappeared. The story is that she went to the bathroom and was never seen again.

The initial investigation was far from thorough. It was quickly assumed that Sophia was the victim of an accident, of a wild animal, but no remains were ever found.

On that day, October 28, 2015, our lives exploded and a desperate search for our missing daughter began and still continues. So far I have made 25 trips to Uganda. One because I wanted to visit my daughter. Second, because I have to, to find my daughter.

Soon I will return for the 26th time. I still hope that this will be my last and that I won’t go home alone after all.

We are aware that, statistically speaking, the longer a person is missing, the lower the chances of finding them. But miracles happen and I firmly believe in them. If nothing is certain, everything is possible.

During my travels, I found witnesses, gathered information and spoke to many people. Paradoxically, the more information I collected, the more questions arose.

For a time there were also communications with the police.

This contact unfortunately ended in spring 2022 when a new investigation was opened by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID). We were told to give them three months to produce a report.

Three months passed, six months passed, then a year. It was frustrating not having any idea of ​​the conclusions of this investigation.

At the beginning of October 2023, we finally received a CID report but it gave us nothing new. Several important issues were not addressed at all. It was really disappointing and we felt like we were sent back to square one.

Finding the truth is never easy, but we must hope that one day we will be able to unravel the mystery of Sophia’s disappearance.

For nine years now, the basis of our daily lives has been deep agony and insecurity. And the fear that this could be a life sentence, that we will never know where Sophia is. Yes, we know that life goes on but no, time does not heal all wounds. On the contrary. Our wound only grows bigger and more painful as time passes.

I hear the same thing from people in the same situation, many in Uganda as well. No child is as present as a missing child. The unknown fate of your child haunts you. It’s the first thought in the morning, the last before falling asleep. If you can sleep.

Until we have any evidence to the contrary, we remain hopeful that Sophia is somewhere and that one day she will return to us.

We often talk about the strength of the maternal instinct. As Sophia’s mother, I feel her presence everywhere. Common things remind me of her.

A mother and her daughter in a store, a young blonde woman on her bicycle, young doctors in white coats rushing through the hospital corridors; This all shocks me.

A harsh confrontation with reality; I don’t walk with my daughter, her bike is in front of our house, Sophia doesn’t rush into a hospital in a white coat. And we don’t know if she ever will.

We miss her dearly, even more, if possible, on these special occasions; his brothers graduates and birthdays. This “Happy Birthday Mom!” » exactly at midnight. We miss his enthusiasm, his creativity, his ideas and initiatives, as well as his incredible joie de vivre.

It is certainly not easy to continue, but hope springs eternal and we must do everything humanly possible to discover the truth. I am determined to take every road that comes my way. The only way to know where this leads is to start walking. Abandoning Sophia is absolutely not an option.

We can use all the help we can get and are extremely grateful to those who have always stood by us and continue to support us where they can.

What we can’t use are people trying to make money off of our tragedy by falsely claiming to know where Sophia is.

Surely there must be more honorable ways to make money. Don’t they know that rewards are only paid once a missing person is found, never before?

Sophia’s mysterious disappearance was the subject of widespread media coverage, including a film made by Dutch public television. All of this can be found at: www.findSophia.org.