Syrian refugee father who sold pens in Beirut's streets now owns 3 businesses

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Amazing. I remember his story from a while back. So happy it turned out well for him and his family. Those photos are so touching. +1 for humanity.
 
That pen picture is sad. :(

Crowdfunded, charitable donation, whatever. It's not as if he went and squandered the money or something. lol @ people pooping on the story.
 
The fact that he could run a successful crowd funding campaign is a positive, not a negative. Doing so is not easy, no matter how heartwarming a story you have behind it.

And then putting together successful businesses with that money? Even more commendable.

There are countless examples of people fucking up with $200,000 whether crowd funded, from personal funds, or from a loan.
 
It's confusing to me why the crowdfunding takes away from it being a good thing for some people--he didn't raise that money on his own, but he did something really good with it and is paying it forward by hiring refugees. That is incredibly awesome. It's not a self-made man rags to riches sort of miracle I guess but the fact that he took that money and used it to make an honest living and help others in his position do the same is admirable.
 
dLMN8R said:
The fact that he could run a successful crowd funding campaign is a positive, not a negative. Doing so is not easy, no matter how heartwarming a story you have behind it.
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He didn't run the campaign himself. A journalist was moved by the first picture and wanted to do something. I'm not sure in which order it happened, but started the campaign himself and also tracked the man down.
 
The pic on the lift is just depressing af. And to think there are many people who are experiencing the same right now is just more depressing. I'm just happy for him and his daughter and that he employed other refugees.
 
He's breaking even on this stuff as well as paying it forward. Nothing wrong here. Didn't even get the full 200 K but only 168K or so in small amounts. His business sense has seen him through operating 3 businesses.

Sure the article title was manipulative but the first paragraph is LITERALLY stating that he got crowdfund money, so they are being upfront about it.

Hope he is able to bring in a profit soon and be able to save money and send his kids to college! (Do Non-American colleges work like that? I know some are state funded, others are not)
 
That pen selling picture is pretty damn crushing...

But still, what a wonderful thing to read. Thanks a lot for sharing. Could definitely use more stories like this.
 
I'm glad he is doing alright right now, should be better for him I'd he badges to get the other $90000 that still hasn't made its way to him.

It did seem a little quick to open the businesses though. Going from pen sales to running multiple businesses.

Nice that he is hiring other refugees though.
 
sarcastor said:
there are literally haters everywhere, especially on this board. they can not see the goodness in anything so they have to piss on other people's parade.

The best thing you can do is literally ignore them :)

BuyPens.jpg


The amount of sadness and despair in the left photo compared to the happiness and joy in the right is astounding. Just looking at this photo without any context, you can tell some sort of miracle happen.

The fact that he got a $200,000 without any work on his part is irrelevant. He didn't take the money and buy a sports car. He invested it wisely and is helping other refugees. With only a third of it. If you see any negativity in this you, you are a horrible human being, imho.
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Damn.. Those pictures 😢
 
lol. The thread title is very misleading. I thought he was able to own 3 business by selling pens.

Anyway, that's really good job of him on using the money the right way.
 
Stallion Dan said:
Not ignorant, but hey just throw that around like it means something.

How important are the pens to this story to be featured in the title? Not at all. Title should be something like "Crowdfunded Syrian Refugee sets up 3 businesses and employs others". You know, the actual story that matters.

Title implies something completely different mentioning what it does.
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You must be awesome at parties.
 
Klyka said:
The real success story is that he is employing 16 other syrian refugees.

He didn't just use the money to secure his and his daughter's lives, he is also securing the lives of others like him.

Real good story.
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Well except that means he immediately started discriminating against other people.
 
Madrin said:
This is what popped into my head too. The majority of restaurants fail in their first year. I hope it works out for him.
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Most restaurants fail because they don't market themselves properly, dude is getting free publicity and is supporting refugees. I bet the restaurant does pretty solid in the short term at least.

poppabk said:
Well except that means he immediately started discriminating against other people.
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lol okay
 
Pastry said:
Most restaurants fail because they don't market themselves properly, dude is getting free publicity and is supporting refugees. I bet the restaurant does pretty solid in the short term at least.



lol okay
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It's a country with ~30% of people living below the poverty line. A study indicated that it would take $12 per year per person to lift those in extreme poverty out of extreme poverty. So with the money he got he could have lifted ~10,000 people in the country that took him in as a refugee out of extreme poverty for a year.
 
poppabk said:
It's a country with ~30% of people living below the poverty line. A study indicated that it would take $12 per year per person to lift those in extreme poverty out of extreme poverty. So with the money he got he could have lifted ~10,000 people in the country that took him in as a refugee out of extreme poverty.
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Eh. You don't know if he's doing charity work or not, or whether some of his 16 employees do or not. That's not really the point here and what was he gonna do after donating his money to charity?

Besides, that would just be a temporary band-aid to a much bigger problem – people being unemployed. Besides, the world deserves some tasty Syrian dishes man, why would you want to rob us of that ;P
 
Nice story but title should be:

Syrian refugee father who sold pens in Beirut's streets now owns 3 businesses thanks to Norwegian developer and founder of Conflict News who set up crowdfunding campaign.
 
sarcastor said:
there are literally haters everywhere, especially on this board. they can not see the goodness in anything so they have to piss on other people's parade.

The best thing you can do is literally ignore them :)

BuyPens.jpg


The amount of sadness and despair in the left photo compared to the happiness and joy in the right is astounding. Just looking at this photo without any context, you can tell some sort of miracle happen.

The fact that he got a $200,000 without any work on his part is irrelevant. He didn't take the money and buy a sports car. He invested it wisely and is helping other refugees. With only a third of it. If you see any negativity in this you, you are a horrible human being, imho.
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The sad thing is that his story is being repeated millions of times over in this and other refugee crises around the world. But it is nice to see at least one man and his daughter see a happier time and give help to others in the same position.
 
Yagharek said:
The sad thing is that his story is being repeated millions of times over in this and other refugee crises around the world. But it is nice to see at least one man and his daughter see a happier time and give help to others in the same position.
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This story should be used of an example of how charity actually helps, it helped this guy, his daughter and 16 others, that's awesome. Yet you have shit-posts that go "Why didn't he give his money to charity?!?!".

And then you start to think "Why won't you give to charity?" and to be honest it makes me feel like a turd for not ever giving any charities any thought whatsoever. Not that my current financials allow me to do much but what about when I do have money to spare? Odds are I'll just conveniently forget about it all and be happy with what I personally have which, again, is shitty.

Edit: Thinking more about it, I wonder if charity ads and what not would be more succesful if they focused on what donations actually lead to, happy healthy people, instead of showing the complete utter misery of those who are worse off. People react stronger to negative imagery, sure, but it would be an interesting comparison.
 
Easy_D said:
Eh. You don't know if he's doing charity work or not, or whether some of his 16 employees do or not. That's not really the point here and what was he gonna do after donating his money to charity?

Besides, that would just be a temporary band-aid to a much bigger problem – people being unemployed. Besides, the world deserves some tasty Syrian dishes man, why would you want to rob us of that ;P
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I'm just saying that him only employing Syrian refugees is not really as good as if he was employing Syrians and Lebanese considering that the country that took him in has severe poverty and unemployment issues, although to be fair it seems like this is not so much the case in Beirut itself.
 
poppabk said:
I'm just saying that him only employing Syrian refugees is not really as good as if he was employing Syrians and Lebanese considering that the country that took him in has severe poverty and unemployment issues, although to be fair it seems like this is not so much the case in Beirut itself.
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I mean being poor is one thing, being poor and a refugee from a war torn Syria is another, it's not surprising that he'd help his fellow countrymen first and foremost. But I can see your point.
 
I cried reading that. I got a kid the same age.

I couldn't imagine being forced to sell pens on the street to feed him.

Crowdfunding or not he's doing well for himself, his family and he's helping other refugees.

I hope other refugees get even a fraction of that to get them on their feet.
 
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