Story highlights Photo of man in Beirut selling pens on the street strikes a chord with social media users

They located the man, a Syrian refugee, and raised thousands of dollars for him

(CNN) It was almost another tragedy.

But with a boost from social media, an anonymous pen seller in Beirut, Lebanon became a Syrian refugee success story.

When Gissur Simonarson, an activist from Oslo, Norway, posted a photo last week of a father selling pens on the streets of Beirut as he cradled his sleeping daughter, he struck a chord with more than 6,000 followers.

"It's a terribly emotional picture," Simonarson told CNN. "You see the look in his face and just the way he holds the pens out, as if those pens are everything he has in the world."

Syrian father selling pens in the streets of #Beirut with his sleeping daughter #Lebanon #Syria pic.twitter.com/KOz4mjW1rd — Gissur Simonarson CN (@GissiSim) August 25, 2015

Within hours, requests poured in from around the world to help the merchant in the photo. But Simonarson did not know who the man was or who took the photograph.

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