DUBAI — A crowdfunding account raised thousands in just three hours after a picture of a refugee trying to sell pens on a street in Beirut went viral, The Independent reported on Friday.
In the picture that was shared by Gissur Simonarson on Twitter, a Syrian refugee is seen carrying his young daughter, while seemingly trying to sell pens.
Simonarson then created a Twitter account under the name #Buy_Pens and was able to find the man and his daughter.
Finally found him =) Been a lot of work, but it was worth it! Now lets help them! https://t.co/Fcg59KTbbh pic.twitter.com/SjIDmytCeG
— Gissur Simonarson CN (@GissiSim) August 27, 2015 Identified as Abdul, the man is a Palestinian Syrian from Yarmouk camp – a single father of two children, nine-year-old Abdelillah, and four-year-old Reem.
Simonarson then decided to create a crowdfunding account on Indiegogo to raise money for Abdul and his family. Within the first 30 minutes Simonarson tweeted saying “We have reached my goal of $5,000 in the first 30 min.
This was never meant as a cap, just something to start with. “Let’s make sure that Abdul and Reem can really start a great new life.” We just reached our goal in 30 min. #BuyPens pic.twitter.com/ZwC0kpWskG
— #BuyPens (@Buy_Pens) August 27, 2015 And after three hours donations reached $15,260, exceeding the original goal.
3 hours in. 3x our goal =) How many x the goal can we go? #BuyPens pic.twitter.com/anO8ZHFgvq. — Gissur Simonarson CN (@GissiSim) August 27, 2015. — Al Arabiya News
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