Manama: The child seen picking through trash in the ‘selfie’ of a young Saudi man has received an estimated 400,000 Saudi riyals (Dh398,418) in financial donations.
The selfie backfired for Faisal Hafedh, the young Saudi man who took the picture and posted it on social networks to show off.
Instead, it sparked outrage within the Saudi community, which harshly criticised him, and triggered a wave of compassion that resulted in a flood of financial donations for the young girl. Several people sympathised with her and wanted to assist in everyway they could.
Hafedh became so remorseful hours after posting the selfie and sought out the child on the streets of the Red Sea city of Jeddah. He offered her several gifts and apologised profusely for the selfie.
A Saudi website revealed on Wednesday that Hafedh had resigned from his job.
“The situation has become unbearable and I could not face society over what I did,” he said. “I do regret what happened. I do reiterate my apologies and insist that I did not mean to demean or ridicule anyone,” he said, quoted by mbc.net.
Hafedh said he hoped that the incident would not continue to haunt him and revealed that he was planning to apply for a new job.
