TikTok reunites twin sisters who were separated 20 years ago

Indonesian twins separated two decades ago are back together, thanks to social media app TikTok.

Trena Mustika and her twin, Treni Fitriyana, were first separated at the age of two months after developing cholera symptoms. Their parents, Enok Rohenah and Enceng Dedi Mustika, were told it was the best thing to do.

“They were sickly so people told us to keep them apart,” dad Enceng says.

The parents were relocated to Maluku from Java as part of the government’s programme to move families out of the overcrowded capital city, Jakarta. They took their babies with them and later returned to Java to care for a sick relative, leaving the twins behind in Maluku with two foster families.

However, they visited the girls from time to time – until a conflict between Muslim and Christian citizens erupted in the city of Maluku.

Enceng managed to take Trena back to Java but he was unable to locate his other daughter, whose foster parents had taken her to live in East Java.

Complicating matters was the fact the Mustikas had given Treni’s adoptive family permission to change their daughter's name.

Although Treni’s foster family hadn’t informed her she had a twin sister, Trena and her father kept on searching for her throughout the years. The girls’ mom passed away in 2019.

Then, after 20 years of searching, Trena saw a video of Treni, who is now a blogger, on TikTok and noticed their striking resemblance. 

The excited young woman reached out to the blogger on different social media platforms and after communicating for more than a month, Trena travelled to East Java by train to reunite with her long-lost sister.

In the emotional video posted on TikTok and other platforms, the siblings can be seen sobbing and hugging.

"I was shocked. Our faces look the same . . . my children couldn't even tell which one was their mother," Treni said.

“We're the same. She is talkative, so am I. She's stubborn, so am I. But we're different to our husbands, she's more patient than me.”

The twins’ dad is delighted his daughters have been reunited but regrets that his wife didn’t live to see the happy occasion. Trena says she doesn’t blame her parents for separating them.

“They had their reasons,” she says. “There’s no need to blame anyone.”

Watch the video here:

Sources: Vice, Mirror, ABC Net