The Vanished Babies

This is the story of one stolen baby. Her name is Lika, and she was born in 1981. For decades, her biological family never questioned the doctors’ words that she had died shortly after birth. They were even given a death certificate, making her death seem as real and final as possible. In reality, Lika had been stolen and transferred to another maternity hospital in a nearby city. Written and repo...

In 2003, the Rose Revolution swept through Georgia. Young leaders came to power, promising to root out corruption, which had long been deeply embedded in state institutions. Foreign adoptions were suspended. This meant that babies who were ready to travel abroad were suddenly stuck in the country. The individuals arranging adoptions found themselves in a difficult situation. They had already recei...

Jesse’s adoption documents turned out to be forged. This was confirmed by DNA testing. In this episode, I continue contacting the people who organised his adoption and created the documents. They struggle to remember this particular case, but they do have something to say. Written and reported by Khatia Shamanauri. Sound design: Pixabay.

Twenty-three years ago, a two-month-old baby was adopted by a Canadian family from Georgia. Jesse has always believed that his biological parents in Georgia decided to give him up for adoption because they couldn't afford to raise their third child. One day, he decided to find his biological parents. He found them, but they told him they had never had a baby in 2003. They were not his parents....

Nato’s life in Georgia was ordinary, like many others, until 2004, when she found a note from a doctor saying that she had not had access to her mother’s milk. Nato suspected that she might have been adopted, but her parents had never mentioned it. So, she decided to ask her mother directly. However, the answer she received would shatter her. Her mother admitted that she had stolen Nato from her b...

In 2021, Georgian journalist Tamuna Museridze created a public Facebook group to help adopted people find their biological parents. In the small country of Georgia, that process can be incredibly complicated. Tamuna, who is herself adopted, had already figured out how to navigate it on her own. What began as a support group soon uncovered an underground scheme that had operated across the country...

Lika has just received something impossible: her own death certificate. For years, Jesse didn't know whether his biological parents believed he was dead. They were among many people born in the small country of Georgia and adopted around the world, all searching for the same answer: what really happened at their birth? The more they searched, the more convinced they became that they were victi...