Over 6,000 people have donated to a campaign to help Syrian refugee Abdul Halin and his two children

Abdul Halim Attar was photographed selling pens on the street in Beirut, Lebanon, while holding his sleeping daughter in his arms, and after the image went viral, Halim ended up making more money than he ever could have imagined.

The 35-year-old single father of two from Syria captured numerous hearts around the world and has received almost $168,000 in donations after Gissur Simonarson, an Icelandic journalist and activist, created a crowdfunding campaign to help the struggling parent after he tracked him down following a two-day search in Beirut.

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“We are all very invested in this mans life now, and we want to make sure he gets help as soon as possible,” read an update on the campaign’s website. “Unfortunately, we need to wait for this campaign to finish, which will take 10 more days. Then Indiegogo can take up to 15 days to process the funds before we get them.”

Carol Malouf, a Lebanese activist who works with the refugee rights group Lebanese4Refugees, visited Attar at his home in Beirut last week and has helped him get food, paid for his rent through September and has been working on getting his paperwork in order to establish him in Lebanon.

Attar has been selling pens and anything else he can get his hands on to support his 9-year-old son, Abdelillah, and 4-year-old daughter, Reem. According to Malouf, Attar said his wife left him when the family fled Syria three years ago.