A 6-year-old boy from New York is inspiring a lot happy tears this week after he wrote a heartwarming letter to President Barack Obama, asking him to bring a Syrian boy to his house so that boy could become a part of his family.
The letter writer, Alex, was referring specifically about Omran Daqneesh, the Syrian boy whose image went viral last month after he was pulled out from rubble in the city of Aleppo following an air strike.
Alex asked Obama to bring Daqneesh to his home in Scarsdale, New York so that he can be the boy’s brother.
“Park in the driveway or on the street and we will be waiting for you guys with flags, flowers, and balloons,” Alex wrote. “We will give him a family and he will be our brother.”
Obama read the letter aloud during a speech at the Leaders Summit on Refugees, saying that it shows children welcome people with open arms “without suspicion.”
“The humanity that a young child can display, who hasn’t learned to be cynical, or suspicious, or fearful of other people because of where they’re from, or how they look, or how they pray, and who just understands the notion of treating somebody that is like him with compassion, with kindness — we can all learn from Alex,” Obama said.
Read and listen to the full letter from Alex below via the White House:
Dear President Obama,
Remember the boy who was picked up by the ambulance in Syria? Can you please go get him and bring him to [my home]? Park in the driveway or on the street and we will be waiting for you guys with flags, flowers, and balloons. We will give him a family and he will be our brother. Catherine, my little sister, will be collecting butterflies and fireflies for him. In my school, I have a friend from Syria, Omar, and I will introduce him to Omar. We can all play together. We can invite him to birthday parties and he will teach us another language. We can teach him English too, just like my friend Aoto from Japan.
Please tell him that his brother will be Alex who is a very kind boy, just like him. Since he won’t bring toys and doesn’t have toys Catherine will share her big blue stripy white bunny. And I will share my bike and I will teach him how to ride it. I will teach him additions and subtractions in math. And he [can] smell Catherine’s lip gloss penguin which is green. She doesn’t let anyone touch it.
Thank you very much! I can’t wait for you to come!
Alex
6 years old
