Walk with Amal: a little Syrian refugee's journey in search of her mother

The Walk is the journey of Little Amal, a 9-year-old Syrian refugee who begins her journey from Gaziantep in Turkey to Manchester. This artistic expression in the form of living art has been brought to life by Good Chance to depict the journey of little - big in this case - Little Amal in search of her mother.

Following the international success of The Jungle, Good Chance, in collaboration with the creators of War Horse, the Handspring Puppet Company, has presented The Walk, a travelling arts festival in support of refugees, with artistic direction by Amir Nizar Zuabi.

On 30 March, from the Syrian-Turkish border, Amal will begin its journey to the UK on a route that will bring together celebrated artists and major cultural institutions, as well as community groups and humanitarian organisations. More than 70 towns, villages and cities will welcome Little Amal with art, from large street parties and city performances to more intimate community events.

In July, Little Amal will arrive at the Manchester International Festival, where she will be the centrepiece of a large-scale participatory event. As Little Amal passes through the cities, towns and villages on its route, hundreds of cultural events will be created in response.

Her stops include Athens, where she will leave a trail of red thread as she explores the labyrinth of city streets, and join the townsfolk as they meet and befriend the minotaur. In Rome, for example, Amal will walk through paintings projected onto local buildings of bombed-out houses by Syrian artist, Tammam Azzam. In Paris, dozens of tents will form an outdoor art installation, each representing one of the many different places where the world's refugees come from.

The 3.5 metre high puppet represents one refugee girl in particular, but reflects the reality of all displaced and separated children. Little Amal will travel more than 8,000 kilometres and carries the message "don't forget about us".

This artistic response is a cultural odyssey that transcends borders, politics and language. It tells a story of shared humanity, with the aim of preventing the world from forgetting the millions of displaced children. Each with their own story and their own path, and made even more vulnerable by the pandemic situation.

Director Amir Nizar Zuabi explained that "it is because the world's attention is elsewhere at the moment that it is more important than ever to reignite the conversation about the refugee crisis and change the narrative around it".

She explains that the purpose of The Walk is to highlight the potential of the refugee and not just her circumstances. "We want her to inspire us to think big and act big," he adds. The events will be mostly outdoors and therefore safe for COVID-19, she said, "with a plan A and a plan B, and often a plan C, at each location".

Good Chance's executive director explains that "only half of refugee youth were in school before the COVID crisis and the pandemic further threatens educational opportunities". She adds that "We want to refocus attention on the urgent needs of young refugees (...) but also to highlight the potential of Little Amal and the millions like her."

Meet Little Amal

Little Amal is the giant 3.5 metre tall puppet at the heart of The Walk and in 2021 she will travel 8,000 kilometres, passing through Turkey, Greece, Italy, France, Switzerland, Germany, Belgium and the UK.

Little Amal has vivid thoughts of his hometown and they follow him every step of the way, reminding him that home can exist in more than one place. His story began in Good Chance Theatre's play, The Jungle. The production was based on the stories encountered by the theatre's founders, Joe Murphy and Joe Robertson, who created their first Theatre of Hope in the refugee camp in Calais.

The Jungle tells stories of loss, fear and hope of the creation of the Calais camp and its subsequent destruction. It is then that Little Amal appeared as a character in The Jungle representing thousands of unaccompanied minors in the Calais camp. Alone in the camp and cared for by other characters, she was a powerful presence in every scene she appeared in. Her line in the play, however, now has a bigger story to tell.

This story did not have enough of a stage and has moved on to have the world as such, with an epic journey. Representing the movement of people that has driven humanity throughout history and that Syrian children like her have been living for exactly 10 years now.

The Syrian refugee crisis remains the world's largest displacement crisis, with 5.6 million registered refugees, including more than 2.5 million children, living in Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey.