Tearful Dad Selling Pens With Daughter on the Streets. Then a Single Picture Changes His Whole Life
After being photographed selling pens roadside in Lebanon, Abdul Halim al-Attar now has a new home for his children and the bakery of his dreams. Back in 2015, a photo of Abdul Halim al-Attar, a Syrian refugee living in Lebanon, showing him selling pens on the side of the street went viral. That picture changed his life forever. Hussein Malla / AP After the internet managed to track him down, an IndieGoGo campaign in his name raised an incredible $191,000. Hussein Malla / AP Al-Attar has only gotten 40% of the amount left after banking and processing fees — about $168,000 — so far, thanks to difficulties in transferring the funds to Lebanon. PayPal doesn’t operate in Lebanon, forcing a friend of the fundraising campaign to bring over withdrawn amounts from Dubai. But the amount he’s received has helped both him and other Syrian refugees. Though he told BuzzFeed News in August that he was hoping to move to Europe, when the Associated Press caught up with hi...