Woman reunited with the man who bought her a bike as a refugee in the 90s

Sometimes the internet isn’t as dark as it seems, and this week, one woman’s story is a great example of the kindness that can grow online.

Mevan Babbakar, now aged 29, posted to Twitter just yesterday trying to track down a man who bought her a bike when she was living in a refugee camp in the Netherlands in the 90s.

She posted a picture of the man, who worked at the camp, saying she just wanted to “know the name” of the man who bought her a bike “out of the kindness of his own heart” when she was five years old.

Mevan and her family fled Iraq during the first Gulf war, eventually settling in London after five years as refugees. Replies and retweets quickly racked up, with people saying they knew who he was. She had taken a sabbatical from work to find him, but soon found success via Twitter.

Today, she posted that a man had helped her to make contact with the kind man’s family. “Guys, I knew the internet was great but this is something else”. She updated followers of her journey to say that she was buying him a card and meeting in person.

Mevan added that someone else from the camp had gotten in touch – a woman who helped her to use a computer for the first time. “More so than anything I remember these small kindnesses growing up, they helped shape me.”

Just when you start to lose faith in the world.

More: People are sharing inspiring stories of resilience on World Refugee Day