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Our Journey
2006
The origin
2011
Rital & Ritag
In 2011, Gemini’s founder Owase Jeelani and Professor David Dunaway led the successful separation of Sudanese craniopagus twins, Rital and Ritag.
Following the separation, the team spent several years researching and refining their approach and presenting this work for the global medical community to learn from. It was during this time that they co-founded FaceValue, a unique team of researchers, doctors, scientists, and biomedical engineers.
2018
Safa & Marwa – and the creation of Gemini Untwined
In 2017, Mr Jeelani was approached by a local neurosurgeon in Pakistan to treat Safa and Marwa, a set of craniopagus twins.
The team had the medical, surgical and research expertise but logistics remained a challenge. Mr Jeelani realized that these children and families were rather poorly served, globally.
And so, Gemini Untwined was born.
Following the separation in 2019, Gemini Untwined received widespread international recognition and we have since provided hope to a number of children and their families as well as the medical teams in their home countries.
2020
Yigit & Derman
After 3 sets of girls, this time we had 2 boys referred to us. Mr Jeelani first saw them in August 2019 in Türkiye. Following discussions with the family and the Turkish medical teams, Gemini Untwined was requested to proceed with the attempted separation. Logistics and funding proved to be easier with the charity up and running. The boys were brought to London in December 2019 and the separation was completed in January 2020. The boys were transferred back to Türkiye to continue their rehabilitation.
2021
2022
Israeli Twins
In 2021, we were contacted by the team at the Soroka University Medical Center in Beersheba, Israel. There, we were introduced to our fourth set of craniopagus twins: twin girls born locally. This was the first set of twins in Israel and Gemini Untwined partnered with the local medical team to plan and undertake the surgery in Israel. This was the first time the Gemini Untwined team undertook a separation in the children’s home country fulfilling one of our key aims of disseminating knowledge and expertise globally.
In 2022, further surgeries are taking place in Latin America and Africa.
