A father carries his daughter to protect her from a flood: an old picture from Haiti

  • 2020-09-08
  • 12

Akeed - Dana Al Emam

A photo of a father carrying his daughter to protect her from a flood in what is allegedly Sudan has recently spread widely on social media platforms, yet a verification by Akeed revealed that the image is actually from Haiti and dates back to 2007. 

Akeed verified the photo through a reverse search on Google Images, and found that it had been taken by a photojournalist named Logan Abassi on October 30, 2007, for the United Nations.  

Pictured in the photo is a father carrying his daughter on his shoulder to protect her from drowning in rising waters, in search for refuge from the floods that were triggered by Hurricane Noel. The storm had struck multiple areas of Haiti including the area of Cité Soleil, where they were living at the time.

Another search that Akeed conducted via “TinEye” image searching website showed that the picture was later used on multiple occasions to serve a variety of purposes, including around children's right to protection and, most recently, the torrential downpours and subsequent floods in Sudan. In these instances, the fact that the photo is archival went unmentioned.