Little Amal will arrive in the city with a powerful message.
Embarking on an incredibly lengthy 5,000 mile journey from Syria, a giant puppet of a young girl is set to walk to Manchester as part of a huge art project, and it’s for a very touching cause. Made by the Handspring Puppet Company, who previously worked on War Horse, Little Amal will travel across Europe in a bid to “rewrite the narrative” about refugees, embodying the important message “Don’t forget about us” as she pushes through her important journey.
Covering the Turkey-Syria border through to Greece, Italy, France, Switzerland, Germany and Belgium – Amal will arrive in Glasgow on November 10 (today). Little Amal will be walking from Kingston Quay and across the Tradeston Bridge from 11am today where she will be welcomed by over 100 school children from five schools.
Each school will be given the chance to greet Little Amal and then walk with her, wearing their specially made capes, along the Clydeside to Anderston Quay where the children will hang their climate change capes to create a banner on the walls carrying their messages of hope, questions, and demands for COP26.
During her visit, Little Amal will also meet with 10-metre goddess of the sea Storm on Govan’s Stag Street at around 1.30pm before walking together from Govan Road to Water Row at 2pm. Storm, created by Vision Mechanics, is made entirely out of recycled and natural resources and has come to share her message of the oceans in crisis during COP26.
Speaking of the project, Amir Nizar Zuabi, Artistic Director of The Walk said: “It is because the attention of the world is elsewhere right now that it is more important than ever to reignite the conversation about the refugee crisis and to change the narrative around it. Yes, refugees need food and blankets, but they also need dignity and a voice.
“The purpose of The Walk is to highlight the potential of the refugee, not just their dire circumstances. Little Amal is 3.5 metres 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’s story began in Good Chance Theatre‘s award-winning play, The Jungle, where she opened as a character who represented the hundreds of unaccompanied minors in the Calais camp who were separated from their families. Now, after critical acclaim, Little Amal will be continuing to spread her message in support of young refugees.