"It was like looking in a mirror" - Twin girls separated at birth in Georgia hospital reunited by TikTok 

Amy Khvitia and Ano Sartania (Image via YouTube/  BBC World Service)
Amy Khvitia and Ano Sartania (Image via YouTube/ BBC World Service)

Georgian twins, Amy Khvitia and Ano Sartania, who were separated at birth and sold to different families, were reunited through a viral TikTok video. Shortly after their birth, they were taken from their biological mother, Aza, who was misled into believing that her daughters had died shortly after delivery.

The twins' paths crossed unexpectedly nearly two decades later. Speaking to BBC, Sartania said:

"It was like looking in a mirror, the exact same face, exact same voice. I am her and she is me."

Ano continued by saying:

"I don't like hugs, but I hugged her."

The journey towards their reunion began when Amy, at the age of 12, spotted a girl on the talent show Georgia's Got Talent who looked strikingly similar to her. This moment sparked curiosity but did not lead to immediate action, BBC reported.

Fast forward to November 2021. Amy was posting a TikTok video of her blue hair and a new eyebrow piercing. This video reached Ano Sartania, a resident of Tbilisi, from a friend who said there was a resemblance.

Coming back to the real investigation, Ano tried to figure out who the girl was, BBC added.

A week later, she was identified. They got connected through Facebook. Once they started messaging each other, both felt connected at first with Amy expressing:

"I have been looking for you for so long!"

"Me too", responded Ano.

As they began communicating, they found startling similarities: both of them were born in the same maternity hospital in western Georgia, Kirtskhi, which had since been closed. Still, their birth certificates showed them as being born weeks apart; therefore, initially, they didn't believe each other's stories of being twins.

But whatever else, there was no mistaking the likeness.

As they spent more time together, they found many similarities–– both suffered from a genetic disorder known as dysplasia.

It was later that both families confessed to adopting them under dubious circumstances, which made them seek their original identities.

Ano told BBC that she felt:

"angry and upset with my family, but I just wanted the difficult conversations to be over so that we could all move on".

What was the story behind Amy Khvitia and Ano Sartania?

Unable to conceive children, Amy's mother was desperate to become a parent. In her search for solutions, a friend informed her about an "unwanted baby" at the local hospital.

This friend said that if she could pay off the doctors, she could leave with the baby and raise the child as her own.

She convinced Amy's mother that fulfilling the dream of being a mom could be an accomplishment through that illegal process when hospital staff agreed with them because of their wrongdoings in this illegal situation.

This resulted in Amy being taken from her biological mother right after birth and sold to another family.

From the contacts that were made, Amy and Ano discovered that a woman had given birth to twin girls in 2002, and this woman was living with their birth mother in Germany. After the DNA tests confirmed their identities, the twins made arrangements to meet Aza in Leipzig.


History of the adoption system

The black market of baby trafficking in Georgia lasted for at least three decades, from the late 1970s through the mid-2000s. It is estimated that up to 100,000 babies were taken away from their biological parents and sold for adoption through corrupt practices involving medical professionals, government officials, and organized crime networks, as per reports by BBC.

Many of them were duped into thinking their babies died immediately after delivery. Others were told to abandon the babies on the pretext of their death.

When parents came seeking their allegedly dead children, they were told that the children had been buried within the premises of the hospitals, the media agency noted, however, that such graveyards never existed.

In most cases, parents were presented with other dead babies in morgues in order to reassure them that the baby belonged to them.

Reporters and campaigners like Tamuna Museridze have greatly been instrumental in the revelation of this dark past of Georgia. Museridze has been helping parents trace their missing children as well as chronicling many illegal adoption cases.

She estimates that thousands of people are still searching for answers about their pasts, so the scale of this is quite an ongoing crisis.

Edited by Shimona Sharma
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