Tuggeranong man Rohan Samara arrived in Australia from Vietnam in 1975 in a cardboard box, one of the thousands of babies airlifted from South Vietnam to countries across the world in the dying days of the Vietnam War.
He was one of an estimated 3000 babies evacuated from Saigon in April 1975, as part of Operation Babylift, with about 200 infants arriving in Australia to be adopted. Rohan was welcomed with open arms into the family of Canberra couple Mary and Percy Samara-Wickrama.
Rohan enjoyed a golden life with his adoptive family and has been forever grateful for his second chance. But that hasn't stopped him wondering about his biological family and if there was any way of tracking them down.
He's visited Vietnam multiple times and even distributed thousands of posters detailing his story near his orphanage in Soc Trang.
Through DNA testing, he last year finally met his first blood relative - a fourth cousin - Sara Malje, who was from the same orphanage as Rohan but in 1975 was airlifted to Sweden and grew up there with her adoptive family.
"It was a very special meeting because it was the first time in 49 years that I met a blood relative," he said.
Rohan's wife Ann, a finance officer at Forrest Primary School, remembers watching him and Sara meet for the first time.
"I just felt so happy for Ro, in particular. It made me get really quite emotional," Ann said.
"She was really just so beautiful and so warm."
Next April, marks the 50th anniversary of Operation Babylift.
Rohan and other adoptees from around the world are heading back to Vietnam to give back to the country - and, hopefully, spark more family reunions.
They are completing a 280km bike ride from Saigon to Soc Trang, beforehand raising money for care packages for elderly people to be distributed along the way.
The group, including Ann, will also be giving out DNA kits to mothers that gave up their children during the war in the hope of a better life for them. DNA kits are too expensive for many to afford and makes any hope of finding their children almost impossible.
"We'd love to give them the opportunity to do DNA testing and possibly find their children," Rohan said.
Rohan, who works for Domestic Animal Services, hasn't yet found his biological parents and believes, because of his features, they may actually have come from neighbouring Cambodia. He and Ann have also travelled to Cambodia over the last four years, fundraising before they leave to give out food packages via a school they support and build facilities such as toilets.
"All this was done through the generosity of the Canberra community and family and friend networks," he said.
Rohan said seeing the poverty in Cambodia and knowing he could have so easily spent a life in it compelled him to want to help the local people, as well as seek answers about his own heritage. The fundraising trips have become part of life for he and Ann.
"I think our passion moving forward is taking people to Cambodia and Vietnam, for them to experience the culture, the wonderful places, but with the main drive being the charity work to assist the extremely poor people over there," he said.
Rohan and Ann said the people of Cambodia were always so welcoming and, even with nothing, wanted to share what they had with them.
"You see people working so hard in the rice fields or people who don't have a job, and it's very grounding and makes me feel very grateful because in an absolute instant, that could have been me," he said.
"Sometime you have a bit of survivor guilt, thinking, 'Why was I so lucky to come out here?' but that's what gives us the drive to go and help other people because it definitely could have been me."
Rohan's cousin Sara, like him, is still searching for her biological parents. He is not even sure how old he is, given a generic birth date in January 1975 that may or may not be accurate.
"It makes it very hard when your birth certificate says, 'Birth mother unknown', 'Birth father unknown'," he said.
"The orphanage has no paperwork there either. So, I suppose the biggest hope would be through DNA testing but unfortunately a DNA test over there costs as much as a month's salary so people can't afford to do it. So, hopefully with this ride and the testing kits, we'll be able to reunite some parents with their children."
And, hopefully, that will include Rohan finding his own biological parents.
"We're very conscious time is running out because it's nearly 50 years since I left and my parents would be quite old," he said.
"My biggest want is that my birth mother or my birth father can go to their grave knowing the decision they made to give me up for a better life, has been a really awesome one."
- The link to donate to Rohan Samara's charity bike ride in Vietnam is here
