Fact Check: Vietnamese & Indian kids falsely shared as Nepal flood victims

A child who fell into a borewell in India, or a Vietnamese child receiving food packets from a social worker — neither could probably have imagined their videos would one day be shared as flood victims of Nepal. And yet, that’s exactly what has happened.At least 17,000 children have been affected by the devastating flash floods that tore through Nepal on August 26. Alice Akunga, UNICEF’s representative to Nepal, said children across Rasuwa and Dhading saw homes, schools, and hospitals wash away before their eyes.And while social media is full of videos showing the plight of Nepali adults and children, some of the videos going viral are wholly unrelated to the floods — and not from the Himalayan nation at all.In this story, we shall look at six such videos. 1. This video shows a three-year-old child who fell into a borewell in Hoshiarpur, Punjab. As per news reports, the child from Chak Samana village was rescued after a nine-hour joint operation by the NDRF, the SDRF, the Punjab Police, administrative officials, and local volunteers.2.This video was originally shared by a Vietnamese content creator, Hung Thinh Duong, on July 14 on Facebook. In the comment section of this video, he posted another video in which the same child in a yellow T-shirt can be seen holding a food packet.The text alongside this video noted, “Gave two brothers a little gift and then hurry away, hope the kids are always well-behaved and healthy.” This content creator has posted many other videos of helping children in distress.3.This video was also posted by the Vietnamese content creator Hung Thinh Duong (https://www.facebook.com/reel/2702170396826249) on February 26 on Facebook. At the beginning of the video, you can see the viral clip of the same little girl wearing colourful clothes. Later, the man can be seen donating some clothes and shoes to her.4.The same creator posted this video on April 30 on Facebook. In the caption, he stated that he saw this little boy crying, probably because he was hungry. In the video, he can be seen giving food to the child, and later making him wear a pair of shoes.5.This video was originally posted by an Instagram account @gurleen_13oct on July 2 with the hashtag “Punjab”. The account is run by a person called Gurleen Sidhu and is full of multiple videos of the same child (https://www.instagram.com/p/DbKQjaAy8SH/) crawling and playing in a muddy field.6.This video was posted by multiple social media accounts in August 2025 with Bengali captions. Although we could not find the exact context of this video, it is certainly not related to the Nepal floods.- EndsPublished On: Sep 3, 2026 23:19 IST