Gissur Simonarson Crowdfunding has given one male refugee and his family an incredible new life after a campaign to raise money for them was started.
Abdul is a single father to two kids, and was photographed trying to earn some money to feed his kids and provide for them on the streets of Beirut.
The photograph of him selling pens while carrying one of his children was quickly circulated, after it was tweeted by activist Gissur Simonarson.
Gissur Simonarson The family are thought to be Palestinian Syrians from the Yarmouk refugee camp in Damascus, and the image clearly resonated with people.
The hashtag #buypens quickly spread on social media, and after someone got in touch with Gissur, he identified the family within 24 hours, and started a Indiegogo campaign for them.
He went back to Twitter to keep people updated, and the progress was simply amazing.
Abdul is a Palestinian Syrian from the notorious Yarmouk camp seen in this photo. He's a single dad with 2 children. pic.twitter.com/egFy2Bk3lX
— Gissur Simonarson (@GissiSim) August 27, 2015
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 (@GissiSim) August 27, 2015
We just reached our goal in 30 min. #BuyPens pic.twitter.com/ZwC0kpWskG
— #BuyPens (@Buy_Pens) August 27, 2015
3 hours in. 3x our goal =) How many x the goal can we go? #BuyPens pic.twitter.com/anO8ZHFgvq
— Gissur Simonarson (@GissiSim) August 27, 2015
It’s things like this that really restore your faith in people, who let’s be honest, can be pretty awful at times.
To see strangers willing to donate money so that someone else can have a better life is one of the most heart-warming things the internet has to offer.
Gissur Simonarson Oh, and the total is still rising now.
