SALEM, Mass. — Ahmad Alkhalaf, a 9-year-old Syrian refugee, lost both of his arms and three of his siblings during in an attack on a refugee camp inside Syria where his family was living two years ago.

Tuesday night, he will become the face of the Syrian refugee crisis at the State of the Union address at a time when there is much mistrust of refugees after recent terror attacks.

Ahmad is scheduled to be in Washington, D.C., and sit in the gallery of the House of Representatives in the U.S. Capitol as the guest of Salem Congressman Seth Moulton during President Obama’s historic final State of the Union address. 

Nadia Alawa, the president and founder of the nonprofit aid group, NuDay Syria, has also been invited by Moulton to the State of the Union to act as a translator for Ahmad and his father.

Six months ago, NuDay Syria brought them to the Boston area for treatment at Boston Children’s Hospital.

A Syrian boy’s story

An attack on a refugee camp for displaced persons where Ahmad and his father were living killed three of Ahmad’s siblings and left him a double amputee.

Ahmad and his father, Dirgam Alkhalaf, are now living in the Boston area where the boy is being treated. His mother and four siblings have remained in Turkey, where the family fled after the attacks.

“Hi, how are you? Nice to meet you,” says the boy during a phone interview translated by Alawa, who heads up NuDay Syria, the East Hampstead, New Hampshire-based, nongovernmental, humanitarian aid organization.

Through Alawa, the boy said he is “so happy” about seeing the president.

For sports, Ahmad says he likes to play “soccer.” He also says “yeah” when asked if he is excited about being fitted for prosthetic limbs, and “learning” when asked if he is learning English.

“He is saying that so many people have been so kind to him,” Alawa said.

Alawa said Ahmad’s family lived in a village outside of the ancient city of Aleppo, which has been the center of conflict between pro-government forces and rebels for several years.

About 21/2 years ago, the family’s home was bombed several times by the regime and they were threatened by the terror group, ISIS. They moved to the internal refugee camp.

In his native tongue, Ahmad said: “I lost both of my arms and three of my siblings died.” 

When asked if he remembers the attack that took his arms, he says in English: “Yes.” 

He tells Alawa that he was playing in a small tent with his siblings when an airplane came over their heads “and they got hit.” Alawa’s group blames a government missile targeting civilians for the attack. Ahmad lost a sister and two brothers.

“He said that of course he was very sad, he lost three siblings,” Alawa said. Other relatives were killed or injured. “He watched all of this,” Alawa said.

Caring for others

Ahmad, his mother, father and four remaining siblings wound up in Istanbul, Turkey, so the boy could get medical treatment.

“He said that he was met with very good people in Turkey, and there are many good people in America and thank God for everybody,” said Alawa, about the boy who wants to grow up and become a doctor so he can help others.

“There are many children like me,” Ahmad wrote in a letter to President Obama, a line of which Moulton shared. “Even if they did not lose their arms, then they lost everything else.”

“It’s an honor for me,” said Moulton, a Democrat, about hosting Ahmad at the State of the Union. “He’s been through a lot more, and done a lot more, than most of us will in our entire lives.”

The U.S. Committee for Refugee and Immigrants helped organize the family’s visit to Washington, D.C., Moulton’s office noted.

The freshman congressman, who served four tours of duty in Iraq in the Marines, and Alawa both said Ahmad serves as a face of the plight of Syrian refugees.

“I think it’s important that Americans, in the midst of a heated political debate and sometimes discouraging presidential contest, that we are talking about real people and children,” Moulton said.

Alawa said NuDay Syria focuses on humanitarian aid in Syria, and in areas bordering the war-torn country. In the past three years, the group has sent 75 containers of aid overseas. Ahmad came to the attention of the group a year and a half ago through a sponsorship program for orphans and wounded children.

Alawa understands today’s political climate and mistrust of Syrian refugees is a result of terror attacks in Paris, because one of the attackers was found with a forged Syrian passport.

“You always have people who make quick opinions about a lot of things,” Alawa said. However, she said, these are individual cases of terrorism that are not representative of Muslims as a whole.

“They call themselves Muslim, it all backfires on everyone,” Alawa said of the terrorists.

When asked if he could speak with President Obama, Ahmad, through Alawa, said, “he would ask if he could be reunited with his family and his siblings, and that other Syrian refugees could get some help.”

Forman writes for The Salem News in Salem, Massachusetts.