A Tweet That Changed the Life of a War Refugee

Heart-wrenching photos of a destitute and suffering father from Syria, gazing longingly at the crossroads in Beirut, hoping that drivers and passengers will buy pens from him, have recently drawn global attention to the depth of the tragedy in war-torn lands and the harsh life of Middle Eastern refugees. This unfortunate father fled the deadly internal wars in Syria to Lebanon, with a face that clearly shows his pain, yet he remains calm with tearful eyes, risking himself and his daughter in the streets of Beirut at red lights, hoping to earn a meager living by selling a few pens for his two children. This young father wears a tattered shirt; he sweats; the despair is evident in the deep lines on his young face; he cries quietly; his daughter, exhausted and perhaps hungry despite the summer heat in Lebanon, sleeps on his shoulder; perhaps the little girl has fainted from apparent desperation. The streets of Beirut and other cities in the region have been filled with such scenes in recent years as millions of people from Syria, Iraq, Libya, and other war-torn lands have fled to Lebanon. However, the photos of this father and his innocent daughter caught attention when a web designer living in Oslo, Norway, named "Gisur Simonarson," saw this tearful father while sitting in a car during a tour in Lebanon last Tuesday. This young man, moved by the sight, posted the photos on his Twitter account. Within a few hours, the photos were shared so widely that he wrote that he was under pressure from people wanting to find and help these refugees. "Gisur Simonarson" opened a Twitter account with the hashtag "Buy a Pen" to collect donations from generous individuals. According to CBC News Canada, it was less than half an hour after the account was launched that local activists and journalists, along with a Twitter user living in Beirut and the neighborhood where this refugee lives, reported that this man is "Abdul Halim Attar" and his daughter's name is "Reem." With this information, "Gisur Simonarson" wrote to donors on Twitter last Thursday, urging them to "help Abdul and Reem start a new life." "Abdul" is of Palestinian descent and was a resident of the Palestinian camp "Yarmouk" on the outskirts of Damascus. His wife remained in Syria, and three years ago, as the flames of war reached "Yarmouk" and thousands of Palestinians were harmed, he took his infant daughter and son and walked to Lebanon. Three years ago, "Reem" was one year old and "Abdullah" was six. "Abdul Halim Attar" has single-handedly taken care of his children for the past three years. According to CBC News Canada, the "Buy a Pen" account has gained over a million followers in the days since its opening; the hashtag "Buy a Pen" has been shared by hundreds of thousands of users to show their support for this refugee family. "Gisur Simonarson" hoped to raise perhaps five thousand dollars for this father and deliver the money through individuals in Lebanon, but the amount raised reached $104,125 on the very first day. This amount was collected from 3,753 people in just the first day of the campaign. Ms. "Carol Malouf," a Lebanese journalist and political-social activist who runs an organization to help refugees in Lebanon called "Lebanon for Refugees" (leb4refugees) and had identified this father, visited "Abdul" and his children in the refugee camp in Beirut, informing them about the campaign created to help them and took photos with them. "Abdul" told Ms. "Malouf" that with the money collected by donors worldwide, he wants to send his children to school and believes they could receive better education in Europe, but he also wants to help other Syrian refugees. However, "Abdul" stated that if he cannot go to Europe, he wants to open a chocolate shop in Lebanon because he was a worker in a chocolate factory in Syria. Ms. "Malouf" also posted a short video of her meeting with "Abdul" on her Twitter account, where this refugee man says he dreams of returning to Syria. "Gisur Simonarson" and Ms. "Carol Malouf" have been interviewed by many media outlets in recent days for their humanitarian efforts. As internal wars in Syria intensify, Lebanon, one of the smallest countries in the Middle East, has become a refuge for the increasing wave of Syrian refugees.