A homeless man who hadn't seen his daughter in 11 years was reunited with her this week, thanks to a tweet.
Three weeks ago, Daniel Morales was given a prepaid cell phone as part of a project documenting the lives of homeless people. He and three other men were asked to share their experiences on the street through 140-character updates.
Morales, 58, quickly amassed more than 3,000 followers. On Wednesday, he tweeted, “Hi thi is to let yo people know that in lookin eoq my daughter her name is sarah m rivera.” He posted his phone number and a picture of his daughter, Sarah Rivera, who was 16 when he last saw her.
Rivera called him the next day, and the two reunited in New York's Bryant Park on Friday.
Rivera, now 27, lives in a domestic violence shelter in Brooklyn with her two kids.
“Just getting in touch with my daughter again after 11 years and seeing my grandkids, it’s awesome,” Morales told WCBS. “I'm gonna do whatever it takes to keep them near me.”
Morales and Rivera lost contact with each other when Rivera moved from the U.S. to Puerto Rico in 2000 with her mother.
“Just to find my dad after 11 years … I don’t even know how to feel right now, I’m just very, very happy,” Rivera told WCBS. “It’s an exciting moment.”
The project funding Morales' cell phone, Underheard in New York, was created by interns at Bartle Bogle Hegarty, an ad agency, after the company challenged them to "do something good, famously."
“We decided that we wanted to make people listen, and make a difference,” said Rosemary Melchior, one of the interns, according to WNBC. “I don’t think we ever expected something this big. It just shows how big social media is.”
