It’s the haunting image that shocked and moved the world.
Last month, five-year-old Omran Daqneesh was caught up in an air-strike in Aleppo, Syria. The young boy was pulled by strangers from rubble after his house was destroyed.
A video clip that went viral showed Omran sitting dazed and confused in an ambulance, lifting his hand to his head to discover he is covered in blood. Sitting quietly, the boy wiped his hand on the seat.
The images caused a huge reaction worldwide (if precious little follow-up action), and one of those so moved by the disturbing images was a six-year-old boy from New York named Alex.
Alex took it upon himself to write to US president Barack Obama offering his home to young Omran, and calling on the president “to please go get him”.
“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”
As Obama writes in his own accompanying message on Facebook:
“Those are the words of a six-year-old boy — a young child who has not learned to be cynical or suspicious or fearful of other people because of where they come from, how they look, or how they pray.
“We should all be more like Alex. Imagine what the world would look like if we were. Imagine the suffering we could ease and the lives we could save.”
You can watch the full video here:
