WASHINGTON — In August, a widely shared video depicting a dazed and bloodied Syrian boy pulled from the rubble after an airstrike in Aleppo captured the abject horror of the country’s civil war.
Halfway around the world, those terrible images of 5-year-old Omran Daqneesh moved another child, about the same age, to write a heartfelt letter to President Barack Obama.
“Remember the boy who was picked up by the ambulance in Syria?” 6-year-old Alex Myteberi wrote. “Can you please go get him and bring him to our home?”
Young Alex left the president clear instructions: Obama could park in his family’s driveway or on the street in front of their home in Scarsdale, N.Y., and the Myteberis would be waiting with flags, flowers and balloons. Alex already had a friend at school who was from Syria himself; he promised he would introduce him to Omran. They would play and go to birthday parties together, and Omran could teach Alex a new language.
Since Omran likely wouldn’t be coming with toys, Alex and his little sister, Catherine, offered to share theirs.
“We will give him a family, and he will be our brother,” he wrote.
Obama was so touched by Alex’s handwritten letter that he read it out loud at a United Nations summit on refugees in September.
A White House video about Alex’s message went viral, with many praising the child’s compassion and innocence in the face of such atrocity.
“Those are the words of a 6-year-old boy,” Obama said at the summit, to applause. “He teaches us a lot. 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. We can all learn from Alex.”
More than two months later, Alex and Obama met in person, after the White House speechwriting team invited the family for a visit.
Video of the Nov. 10 meeting, which the White House released last week, showed Obama speaking to Alex about the impact of his words.
“I liked your letter so much that I ended up reading it to everybody, and so everybody heard what you said,” Obama said in their Oval Office meeting. “You being so nice and kind hopefully makes other people think the same way. So I was very proud of you.”
According to Alex’s family, there was barely a dry eye in the house.
“Can’t even describe it in words,” Alex’s mother, Valbona Myteberi, said in an email to The Washington Post. “When the president shook my hand and thanked us for raising compassionate kids, my eyes teared up and I was trying very hard not to cry. We were pleasantly overwhelmed by the feeling of pride, respect and gratitude that we received throughout the visit.”
The opportunity to meet with Obama had been a surprise, Myteberi said.
The speechwriting team’s invitation had come in September, but they had settled on Nov. 10 because it fit the family’s schedule. The visit was to include a tour of the White House and meetings with some of the West Wing staff — but an audience with the president was never guaranteed.
