Workers load a truck with ice in Harbin, capital of northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, Dec. 11, 2019. Ice cubes collected from the frozen Songhua River will be used in decoration of the city. (Xinhua/Cheng Zilong)

An Iranian driver who was stranded after his lorry broke down in Poland received a helping hand from locals who launched a crowd-funding initiative for a new truck to take him home. 

By Friday morning, the appeal on the website zrzutka.pl had drawn more than 250,000 zlotys ($65,000) in donations for Fardin Kazemi. 

The self-employed driver was forced to sleep in his American International 9670 lorry after it broke down in early December near Czestochowa after traveling 5,550 kilometers.

Locals provided him with food and a roof over his head a few days after the vehicle broke down. 

"I am very thankful to the great Polish nation for [their] hospitality," Kazemi said. 

He was delivering raisins to Poland and was supposed to continue to the Czech Republic to pick up goods to import to Iran, according to local media. 

After his story hit the internet, Polish lorry-drivers joined forces to help him repair the vehicle, and when that proved impossible, they decided to crowd-fund him a new one.