A Happy Ending For Refugee Father and Daughter After Photo Goes Viral

It's not often that a tale of loss and hardship ends happily. This one does. 

It started when heart-wrenching photos of Abdul, a refugee from Syria, were tweeted by activist Gissur Simonarson. Abdul was pictured selling pens on the streets of Beirut in Lebanon, with his sleeping daughter Reem hiked over his shoulder. 

Posted by the Norway-based activist on August 25, Abdul's story was widely shared on social media: 

Soon after, offers of help began flooding Mr Simonarson's timeline. He tweeted again, this time asking social media to help him locate the man. It worked:

In order to raise funds and awareness, a Twitter account called #BuyPens was created. Within 30 minutes, contributions added up to $5,000.

By Friday morning, the donations totalled over $38,000.

Abdul has been identified as a Palestinian Syrian living in Damascus' Yarmouk camp. He is father to a second child, apart from his daughter Reem. 

If your heart goes out to Abdul, please donate here