Separated and sold at birth, a pair of identical Georgian twins found each other 19 years later by chance, shedding light on a dark era of baby trafficking in Georgia.
ADVERTISEMENTAmy Kvitia and Ano Sartania, identical twins born in western Georgia in 2002, were tragically separated at birth and unknowingly sold to different families, their existence concealed from their adoptive parents.
Their biological mother was falsely told that the children had died at birth.
Years later, in a twist of fate reminiscent of Lindsay Lohan's The Parent Trap, the two twins stumbled upon one another unexpectedly.
In an interview with Georgian media, the twins revealed their remarkable journey of reconnection, recounting the peculiar instances where glimpses of their mirrored selves appeared throughout their lives.
How the twins found each other after 19 years separated
Their journey to reconnection began when they were 12 years old, when Amy saw Ano participating in a TV talent show.
"I was at my godmother's house in Poti, and we were watching 'Georgia's Got Talent.' I saw myself on the stage, and I was thinking I had never been in 'Georgia Got Talent'," recalls Amy.
"Then people started calling my mother, and my godmother and relatives came, saying, 'Why didn't you tell us that you were participating in the show? Why were you using a different name?' I said that it was not me; I did not know."
Seven years later, in November 2021, Amy posted a video of herself with blue hair getting her eyebrow pierced on TikTok. Two hundred miles away, Ano Sartania received the video from a friend, setting off a chain of events that would bring them closer than ever before.
"I put the photo of Amy in a university group, saying I dyed my hair and got a piercing. Some people were saying it suits you so much, but you look a bit different," jokes Ano.
She continues: "And then one girl, Amy's friend, writes, 'It is not you.' I had accompanied her to get the piercing. At that moment, I was like, 'Give me her name, surname, tell her to add me to friends; I need to see her.' And when she added me, we simultaneously wrote to each other "how long I had been searching for you."
A few days later, the twins arranged to meet for the first time in the Tbilisi metro, "I thought I was looking into the mirror," Ano says.
Neither Ano nor Amy knew until they found their identical twin that they were adopted.
Their adoptive parents kept the secret from the girls - although even they were not aware that their adoptive child had an identical twin.
The dark era of baby trafficking in Georgia
The twins' story sheds light on a dark era where thousands of children in Georgia were taken from their birth parents, who were deceived into believing their children had died at birth.
In their pursuit for answers on their adoption circumstances, the twins discovered the Facebook group "Vedzeb," translating to "I'm searching" in Georgian, set up by Georgian journalist Tamuna Museridze.
The online community, which has more than 230,000 members, serves as a platform for mothers who were falsely informed by hospital staff that their babies had died.
After sharing their story on the page, Amy and Ano received a reply from a young German woman, saying her mother had given birth to twin girls in Kirtskhi Maternity Hospital in 2002 and that despite being they had died, she now had some doubts.
DNA tests revealed that the girl from the Facebook group was their sister, and was living with their birth mother, Aza, in Germany.
ADVERTISEMENTIn an emotional moment captured in a new film by the BBC titled "Betrayal at Birth: Georgia’s Stolen Children", the twins were reunited with their mother.
The twins share that their mother clarified that she had fallen seriously ill after giving birth, falling into a coma. Upon regaining consciousness, hospital staff allegedly informed her that the newborns had passed away shortly after delivery.
