A Syrian refugee has thanked the activist who started a crowdfunding campaign to help him and his two young children.

 

Abdul Halim Attar, a single father, was pictured desperately selling pens on the streets of Lebanon as his four-year-old daughter slept in his arms.

 

In just three days, more than $140,000 (£90,000) has been raised for his family.

 

However, Mr Attar has said he only cares about giving his children an education, adding: "I want to find and thank whoever launched this campaign for me.

 

"I thank them so much and I hope they can do this campaign for every Syrian refugee, because there are children on the streets."

 

The Indiegogo campaign, launched by the activist Gissur Simonarson, was aiming to raise $5,000 (£3,250) for Mr Attar – but that target was reached in less than half an hour.

 

Mr Simonarson, also the founder of Conflict News, explained: "I created a special account called 'Buy Pens' on Twitter and used it to collect all the people that wanted to help this man.

 

"As I was verifying the information, they just kept flooding that account. Once we had verified that information, we kicked off the campaign."

 

Lebanon has taken in more than a million refugees from Syria since the war begun – and it is commonplace for young children to sell flowers and packs of tissues for small sums.

(Sky News)