By Rawan Bou Hassan | Staff Writer

“The people that look at her and start telling themselves her story are actively engaged in empathy, in compassion,” Amir Nizar Zuabi, the Walk’s creative director said. “And, of course, if you can do it to an object, we hope you can do it to a fellow human being.”

Little Amal, a 3.5-meter-tall puppet representing a nine-year-old Syrian refugee girl, has embarked on an incredible journey from the border of Syria to Manchester. Since July, she has been travelling over 8,000 kilometers across 65 cities, towns, and villages through Turkey, Greece, Italy, Switzerland, Germany, Belgium, France, and has recently reached the UK. Her voyage represents the pathway many refugees seeking asylum are forced to take.

The puppet was designed as part of the Walk, a festival of art, hope, and cultural diversity to support refugees around the world. This unique artistic initiative surpasses language, borders, and politics to tell the story of the displaced children. The idea is based on “The Jungle”, a play by Good Chance Theatre set in Calais refugee camp in Northern France, in collaboration with Handspring Puppet Company, with artistic direction from Amir Nizar Zuabi. It takes four puppeteers to operate Amal, one on each side as they move her hands, one supporting her back, and another one walking on stilts inside her body animating the mouth. Amongst the puppeteers are two former refugees from Calais.

Amal in Arabic means hope, and Little Amal is hanging onto that hope as she searches for her mother and builds a new life outside her war-torn country, where she can return to school and integrate back into society. Her message, “don’t forget about us,” is meant to shed light on a growing humanitarian crisis: there are over 20 million refugees worldwide, where half of them are under the age of eighteen. They face dire circumstances as they try to reach British soil, where they are packed into boats or trucks by human traffickers. Many of them, including children, and even newborns, are left to be rescued or to drown. Little Amal’s trip wasn’t as dangerous, or mentally and physically exhausting, as the refugees that embark on the same route, but, as an unaccompanied minor, she mirrored a similar reality.  

Yet, this journey is not a walk of desperation, but a walk of pride. It’s taking the theatre to the streets and demonstrating that refugees hold great potential and shouldn’t be considered a problem. Amir Nizar Zuabi expounded that “Little Amal is 3.5 meters tall because we want the world to grow big enough to greet her. We want her to inspire us to think big and to act bigger.”

Little Amal is trying to influence anti-immigration politics and secure the future of refugees, especially when there is a rising anti-immigrant attitude worldwide. From Pope Francis welcoming her in Rome, to the countless other children along the way, she received plenty of love. As she stepped off a boat in the English Channel to the beach at Folkestone, she was also welcomed by actor Jude Law. But that welcome isn’t always the case, Little Amal faced far-right protestors in Greece as they threw rocks at her.

Little Amal’s journey with its twenty-five-person puppet entourage has not ended yet. She will celebrate her 10th birthday in London at the Victoria and Albert Museum, and her final destination will be Manchester, on November 3rd.

But can Amal really change the global perception about immigration? Amir says: “It’s our duty to try.”