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American boy asks Obama if he can adopt Omran Daqneesh

The image of five-year-old Omran sat alone in an ambulance, covered in dust and blood, shocked the world and inspired six-year-old Alex, from Scarsdale, New York, to take action

September 23, 2016 at 12:35 pm

A six-year-old American boy sent a handwritten note to President Barack Obama urging him to bring Syrian Omran Daqneesh, who was pictured in shock sitting in the back of an ambulance after a rocket hit his family’s home, to live with him.

The image of five-year-old Omran sat alone in an ambulance, covered in dust and blood, shocked the world and inspired six-year-old Alex, from Scarsdale, New York, to take action.

In his letter Alex said that he and his sister would share their toys with Omran and he would teach him English and “additions and subtractions in math”. He said: “He will be our brother.”

Obama read Alex’s letter in a speech he gave at the United Nations earlier this week, before posting a video of Alex reading the letter himself to 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,” Obama said.

Transcript:

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