Alex is a six-year-old who wrote to President Obama about Omran, the boy in Syria whose shocked silence as he was placed in an ambulance after his home was bombed, broke the world's heart.

Alex's letter asked President Obama to bring Omran to his 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

President Obama read Alex's letter at a meeting of the Leaders' Summit on Refugees at the UN in New York City.

"I will teach him addition and subtraction." Those are the words of a six-year-old. He teaches us a lot. The humanity the young child can display, who has not 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. We can all learn from Alex.

Details of how you can help refugees, including those from Syria, are at AidRefugees.gov.