US President Barack Obama has always been a vocal supporter of displaced people or refugees.
Six-year-old Alex from New York has written a heartfelt letter to the President asking him to step up for Syrian refugees.
Alex refers to Omran, the little Syrian boy covered in blood and dust, post violence in Syria.
Here’s an animation of the letter, as shared by The White House:
Obama was deeply touched by this letter, and shared it with global leader during the Leaders Summit on Refugees. He said, “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.”
Here’s the full text of the letter:
Dear President Obama,
Remember there was the boy who was picked up by the ambulance- in Syria? Can you please go get him and bring him to ….Park in the driveway or the street and we’ll 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 and 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 we taught my friend Aoto from Japan. Please tell him 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
- It is indeed heart touching to see how loving and accepting a young boy can be.
- The world truly needs to learn more from the innocence of children. For all those who are afraid to open their doors to refugees and treat them like unwelcome guests, Alex’s letter is an eye-opener.
- We have already seen several disturbing pictures of how children and adults are suffering due to the unrest in Syria. These civilians have their everyday lives completely disrupted: children can’t attend schools or mothers fear for their family’s safety, with the constant airstrikes happening.
- It is time for the world to stand in support of refugees. America and Europe cannot take all refugees, but many. Most important: we have to fund the refugee camps in Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan and spend much more money for the refugees there and in Syria as well.
- Syria needs a a better peace-plan as well- we have to establish safe-hope-zones there.