Published : 05-12-2015
More than 45,000 Palestinian Syrian refugees had fled their camps to Lebanon escaping from the war, each one of them has his own story, his own tragedy, where they are suffering from extremely bad living conditions for several reasons, the most important one is the legal status which is unclear, in addition to the high cost of living and the lack of job opportunities.
But as they say there is always an exception, and the exception here is the story of the Palestinian Syrian refugee "Abdel Halim Al-Attar," or "Pens Seller" as he was named later in the media.
Abdel-Halim's story began when he was wandering the streets of Beirut while his daughter lays sleeping over his shoulder and trying to sell pens to make living for his needy family.
The Norwegian journalist "Gissur Simonarson" posted this scene's photos on twitter, and shortly after that, launched a solidarity campaign under the title "Buy Pens" via the fundraising site "Indiegogo", the campaign, which was quite popular in Western capitals, collected more than 210,000 USD of donations.
Few weeks later, Abdel-Halim turned from "Pens Seller" to a business work; he opened a small restaurant and bakery in Beirut in which he offered 16 job opportunities to refugees.
The Norwegian Journalist's initiative also, enabled the man to send his son back to school after 3 years away.
The positive and rapid shift happened to Abdel-Halim, proves that it is possible to help refugees in a decent way, the missed part is the initiative itself, any similar movement can alleviate the suffering of refugees displaced by the war in Syria.
More than 45,000 Palestinian Syrian refugees had fled their camps to Lebanon escaping from the war, each one of them has his own story, his own tragedy, where they are suffering from extremely bad living conditions for several reasons, the most important one is the legal status which is unclear, in addition to the high cost of living and the lack of job opportunities.
But as they say there is always an exception, and the exception here is the story of the Palestinian Syrian refugee "Abdel Halim Al-Attar," or "Pens Seller" as he was named later in the media.
Abdel-Halim's story began when he was wandering the streets of Beirut while his daughter lays sleeping over his shoulder and trying to sell pens to make living for his needy family.
The Norwegian journalist "Gissur Simonarson" posted this scene's photos on twitter, and shortly after that, launched a solidarity campaign under the title "Buy Pens" via the fundraising site "Indiegogo", the campaign, which was quite popular in Western capitals, collected more than 210,000 USD of donations.
Few weeks later, Abdel-Halim turned from "Pens Seller" to a business work; he opened a small restaurant and bakery in Beirut in which he offered 16 job opportunities to refugees.
The Norwegian Journalist's initiative also, enabled the man to send his son back to school after 3 years away.
The positive and rapid shift happened to Abdel-Halim, proves that it is possible to help refugees in a decent way, the missed part is the initiative itself, any similar movement can alleviate the suffering of refugees displaced by the war in Syria.
