Old Photo From Vietnam Falsely Shared as One of Siblings During Nepal Floods

The photo dates back to 2007 and shows two siblings in Ha Giang, Vietnam.

A 2007 photo from Vietnam is being shared to falsely claim that it shows a recent visuals of a boy protecting his sister during the Nepal floods.

(Source: Instagram/Altered by The Quint)

A photo showing two toddler siblings huddled together while sitting on the road has gone viral on social media, where users have claimed that it shows, "Two and a half year old sister protected by four year old brother" in Nepal.

An archived version of this post can be seen here.

(Source: Instagram/Screenshot)

(Archived versions of more posts sharing this claim can be seen here, here, and here.)

Is it true?: No, the claim is false. The photograph was taken in Vietnam in 2007 and has no connection to the recent floods in Nepal.

How did we find out the truth?: We ran a reverse image search on the photo, which led us to a 2013 blog post by journalist and Vera Files' co-founder Ellen Tordesillas sharing the same image without context.

The image has been on the internet since 2013.

(Source: Blogspot/Screenshot)

• This confirms that the image is old and has no connection to the recent floods in Nepal.

• We also came across an article by the BBC from 2015, which mentioned that the photo had been incorrectly shared as one from Nepal, and was from Vietnam.

• It identified its photographer as one Na Son Nguyen, who told the BBC that he had taken the photo in a remote village called Can Ty in October 2007.

The photo has been shared with a false claim since 2015.

(Source: BBC/Screenshot)

• Taking cues from these results, we looked for Nguyen's social media accounts and came across his Instagram page.

• We saw that he had shared the viral image back in 2015, mentioning that it showed a little boy holding his younger sister to 'appease her fears' in Vietnam's Ha Giang province in October 2007.

Conclusion: A 2007 photo from Vietnam is being shared to falsely claim that it shows a recent photo of siblings in Nepal.

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