Start with Hope, change will follow …
Updated 5 June 2022: Amal is back on the road in UK 19 – 27 June 2022
She will be visiting Manchester, Bradford, Leeds, Liverpool, Birmingham, Cheltenham, Bristol, Stonehenge, London, Canterbury, and ending on the beach at Folkestone where she arrived last year: https://www.walkwithamal.org/events/
Amare has invited Little Amal to visit The Hague from 15 to 21 November 2021 and will welcome her as a special guest at the Open Festival on 19, 20 and 21 November.
“After the immense welcome Little Amal has received from so many thousands of people across the 8000km of The Walk, her visit to The Hague – city of Peace and Justice – is an important next step in the new journey and the new life of Little Amal. As Amare itself begins a new journey and a new life, it is right that Amal should open this new centre of art and welcome.” – Amir Nizar Zuabi
https://www.walkwithamal.org/amare/
The Walk updated 15 November at 18:17 · Migrant justice = Climate justice.
Little Amal visited @cop26uk last week to stand alongside young changemakers who brought their powerful voices to the conference to demand change.Standing alongside the young Samoan activist @briannafruean, Amal opened the Gender Day plenary as Brianna highlighted the disproportionate impact of the climate crisis on girls and women from the global south.Afterwards, Amal met young activists in the heart of the COP26 blue zone beneath the hanging globe…
@cop26uk / Douglas Robertson
#migrantjustice#climatejustice#cop26#littleamal#refugeeswelcome#chooselove
Updated 11 November 2021: The Walk: 9, 10 & 11 November Little Amal heads to Glasgow to find out who’s going to put the world together again.
Little Amal, a 3.5 metre puppet of a 10-year-old Syrian refugee, has just completed The Walk. All along her epic 8000km journey she met many other young people who, like her, have been forced to leave their homes by violence, persecution, war or poverty. Very often these circumstances have been caused, at least in part, by the climate crisis.
The enforced journey of young refugees like Amal is one of many ways in which the planet is swivelling off its axis. Ever more borders are drawn and walls are built but the climate crisis affects us all. It defies borders and leaps over all walls.
At COP26 Little Amal will discover new realities about the world by meeting changemakers from many of the countries she has visited: young people who embody and express the urgent need to take action to shape a better future. https://www.walkwithamal.org/cop26/
The Walk: Tens of thousands of young refugees like Amal need our support. Donate to The Walk’s Amal Fund with @chooselove to support the grassroots organisations helping young refugees access education and rebuild their lives. Find out more at the link in bio.@goodchancetheatre @handspringpuppetco123 #littleamal#thewalk#walkwithamal#chooselove #choosewelcome
Farewell Amal, she is off to Netherlands now … and thank you Good Chance Theatre
Updated 3 November 2021: Manchester Fabulous – at 35mins is WAST singing ‘Far away from home … ‘: https://www.instagram.com/tv/CV03bd_I_8N/
Updated 31 October 2021: When the Birds Land – 3rd November – Manchester: The arrival of Amal to Manchester marks the end of her epic journey.
In the lead up to Amal’s arrival local schools, refugee communities and Manchester International Festival will be creating a giant flock of puppet birds.
Her days in Manchester culminate in a spectacular finale event. Surrounded by the communities of the city, Amal understands that she has reached her final destination. She is now ready to begin her next even longer journey: creating a new life in a new home.
The choir of Status Now Signatory: Women Asylum Seekers Together (WAST) will lead the procession into the Bowl at Castlefield for the event which begins at 7pm
Updated 28 October 2021: Little Amal is coming to the end of her amazingjourney – 3 November 2021 when she arrives in Manchester, but before then she has two more stops:
30th October – Barnsley 15:00 Wentworth Castle Gardens: The Way Home: Amal finds herself in rural English countryside and stumbles upon a crumbling castle ruin. A rope becomes her guide, its twists and turns leading her back through the memories of the long way she has travelled.
A bespoke artwork The Rope of Hope by Syrian Palestinian artist Maryam Samaan is installed in the grounds of Wentworth Castle. The piece is imbued with objects collected from across Amal’s vast journey in this special event of welcome with Live Poetry performance from Good Chance’s Change the Word poetry collective.
29th October – Sheffield (conflicting information, may be 3pm or 4.10pm) Finesse Boat Yard, S4 7YY Victoria Quays: Staying Afloat: Amal enters Sheffield the traditional way, on a barge. As she floats into Victoria Quays, communities are out in force to greet her in the city. As the day unfolds Amal discovers giant washing lines hung with messages of welcome across Tudor Square and a traditional Sheffield brass band with a twist, playing all the cities favourite songs.
Tudor Square, S1 2LA to Peace Gardens, S1 2HH: Amal arrives in Tudor Square and hangs up her ‘Quotes for Hope’. She will be greeted by a brass band in the Peace Gardens …
28th October – Birmingham 15:00 Erdington High Street, B23 6RH Games, music and a giant friendship bracelet woven by all the local children are waiting to celebrate Amal and send her on her way with hope. Follow her as she explored the High Street and Market Square.
27th October – Coventry 15:00 Millennium Place, outside Transport Museum Join communities from across Coventry as they take to the streets and welcome Little Amal as she explores the city centre. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-coventry-warwickshire-58971643
19:45 University Square, Priory Street, Coventry Amal will witness a spectacular show of light and dance that will unfold around Little Amal. Free tickets must be pre-booked for this special performance, directed by Sita Thomas of Fio Theatre Company, inspired by Coventry’s history and its journey to becoming a significant city of sanctuary in the UK:
https://coventry2021.co.uk/what-s-on/the-walk-coventry-embraces/
26 October 2021: Oxford 13:00 Oxford Botanic Gardens, OX1 4AZ: In the 150th anniversary year of Lewis Carroll’s Alice Through The Looking Glass, a very famous Alice welcomes a very big Amal!
25th October – London Westminster Cathedral The public were invited to join Little Amal with a special prayer service. [added later: https://www.theguardian.com/world/gallery/2021/oct/27/little-amal-in-london-in-pictures ]
Updated 23 October 2021: In London today (see below).
Tomorrow is Little Amal’s 10th birthday:
11:00 & 13:00 Victoria & Albert Museum Little Amal will attend a birthday party for young friends, including cake made by Yotam Ottolenghi! Book a free museum entry ticket for 11.00 or 13.00 to join her here
16:00 Trafalgar Square All of London are invited to join Boy Blue for this spectacular celebration of Amal, dance and hip hop in the iconic setting of Trafalgar Square. Expect high energy performance, an appearance from the birthday girl and some surprises along the way.
19:00 The Roundhouse, Camden: A one-off concert full of surprises and an extraordinary line-up will finish Amal’s birthday in epic style! Tickets available for purchase now here
Updated 22 October 2021: Big day tomorrow in London:
- 10:00 St Paul’s Cathedral Amal arrives weary at St Paul’s Cathedral in the heart of the London. The Great West Doors, the ceremonial doors of the Cathedral, will open wide allowing children from across London, members of St Paul’s community and other faith leaders to welcome Amal to the Cathedral. An unforgettable performance combining spoken word and music, directed by Phyllida Lloyd will then unfold around Amal! This event will be held outside the Cathedral and is open to all to attend.
- 13:00 The Globe Theatre Watch as Little Amal meets the company of Twelfth Night in this iconic performance space
- 16:00 The Southbank Centre Little Amal will attend Welcome Wishes, a special event in the London Literature Festival. Join her for interactive storytelling, aimed at spreading the message of global community and friendship contained in Swallow’s Kiss – a new novel written by Sita Brahmachari and illustrated by Jane Ray.
- 17:45 National Theatre Singer-songwriter Juliana Yazbeck will perform a welcoming solo that will lead into the choir performing ‘I Am My Own Way Home’ from Pericles. Watch this performance on the Terraces from below with Little Amal.
- 19:00 Somerset House Follow Little Amal into the beautiful courtyard, and form an audience for an original contemporary dance piece. Choreographed by Ruby Portus, this troupe is composed of the National Youth Dance Co and the Sadlers Wells Company of Elders, dancing to live music from Baque Luar.
Updated 21 October 2021: Yesterday Amal was in Dover and today in Canterbury. Tomorrow – Friday – she journeys to London for a quick tour, starting with Lewisham:
- 10:00 Lewisham Deptford Broadway, The Anchor – Griffin Square: A giant fairground wheel has been erected in Little Amal’s honour! Join her in Lewisham, the London Borough of Culture 2022 as she discovers Deptford – the first borough in the UK to be recognised as a borough of sanctuary
- 19:00 Royal Docks: The Royal Docks welcomes Little Amal to this sensory storytelling journey through the docks, filled with live performance, food, film, beatboxing, music and dance. This event is ticketed (£10/£5 concession) please, book here.
Updated 19 October 2021: Today! #LittleAmal arrived in Folkestone for the final leg of #TheWalk. She was welcomed to the UK by Jude Law, young people from @kentrefugeeactionnetwork and the local communities of Folkestone. Her journey will now continue through the UK until 3 November in Dover, Canterbury, London, Oxford, Coventry, Birmingham, Sheffield, Barnsley and finally Manchester. Come and welcome Amal to your city, find out more about our programme at the link in bio. @goodchancetheatre @handspringpuppetco123 #refugee#refugeeswelcome#chooselove#choosewelcome#folkestone#UK
[added later: Little Amal, a giant puppet of a nine-year-old Syrian refugee, has reached the UK as it nears the end of its 5,000km journey.https://bbc.in/3aX2Vo0]
Next stop tomorrow is Dover: https://www.walkwithamal.org/
Updated 14 October 2021: Amal’s journey through UK: She arrives in Folkestone to a massed choir reception on the beach on 19 October, moving through Dover, Canterbury, London – where she will experience her 10th birthday, Oxford, Coventry, Birmingham, Sheffield and finishing her long journey in Manchester on 3 November.
She will be welcomed along the way with pre-planned events organised through linked groups to raise Little Amal’s voice – the list is here: https://www.goodchance.org.uk/stories/2021/10/4/little-amals-uk-plans-revelead
Updated 4 July 2021: Guardian: Meet Little Amal, the puppet girl refugee about to walk 8,000km
Later this month, in one of the most ambitious live artworks ever staged, a giant puppet will trek from the Syria-Turkey border to Manchester, in a moving-theatre show of solidarity with asylum seekers
On the last Tuesday of July, a big little girl will step out into a Turkish city, a few miles from the Syrian border, to begin an 8,000km trek to Manchester. Little Amal is nine years old and is searching for her mother, who went off to find food and never returned. She is the central, and only, character in a spectacularly ambitious theatre project. The Walk will face down international Covid restrictions in a visionary act of solidarity with the plight of refugees, defiance of the borders that put their lives in danger, and belief in the humanity of ordinary people faced with a global humanitarian crisis.
Little Amal’s intercontinental odyssey will be hard to miss in the eight countries whose borders she will cross between July and November, because she is 3.5 metres (nearly 12 feet) tall. She’s a puppet, who will be enabled to make her epic walk by relays of puppeteers, several of whom are themselves refugees. She will bear a single message, on behalf of all the thousands of displaced children who will come out to meet her along the way: “Don’t forget about us.”
Read more here: https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2021/jul/04/meet-little-amal-the-puppet-girl-refugee-about-to-walk-8000km
Updated 14 June 2021: The Walk Education Programme
From July to November 2021 a giant puppet of a 9-year-old Syrian refugee girl called Little Amal will walk from the Syria-Turkey border, across Europe to the UK, travelling 8,000km to focus awareness on the refugee crisis.
Before, during and after her journey Little Amal will connect people from refugee and non-refugee communities through creative learning projects to help forge lasting bonds of friendship. The Walk‘s Education programme will be developed by, with and for each community, responding to local realities with a focus on bringing people together through projects that transcend borders, culture and language. Working with all age groups, we aspire to build a programme of workshops, performances and apprenticeships that celebrates migration and has the potential to empower what might otherwise be a lost generation of refugee children: https://www.walkwithamal.org/education/
Updated 4 June 2021: Start with Hope, Change will follow
Walk with Amal is inspirational: Amal is coming to UK 19 October to 3 November 2021, stopping at Folkestone, Canterbury, London, Oxford, Coventry, Birmingham, Sheffield, Manchester.
https://www.youtube.com/embed/pGn6awlLdaw
This has been the vision of Good Chance and is supported by Choose Love, Gatwick Detainees Welfare Group and many others.
We believe in the power of little girls to make a big impact. Little Amal represents a hope too BIG to ignore.
The attention Little Amal will get will be harnessed into life-changing action by The Walk’s many international humanitarian partners, including Choose Love, International Rescue Committee (IRC), UNHCR, Emergency, Amnesty International France, Safe Passage and The Syria Campaign. (View all Partners)
One little girl. One BIG hope.
Little Amal, a young refugee, embarks on a remarkable journey – an epic voyage that will take her across Turkey, across Europe. To find her mother. To get back to school. To start a new life. Will the world let her? Can she achieve what now seems more impossible than ever?
Following the phenomenal international success of The Jungle, Good Chance, in collaboration with world-famous creators of War Horse Handspring Puppet Company, will present its most extraordinary work yet: The Walk – a travelling festival of art and hope in support of refugees, with Artistic Direction from Amir Nizar Zuabi.
In 2021, from the Syria-Turkey border all the way to the UK, The Walk will bring together celebrated artists, major cultural institutions, community groups and humanitarian organisations to create one of the most innovative and adventurous public artworks ever attempted.
At the heart of The Walk is ‘Little Amal’, a 3.5 metre-tall puppet of a young refugee girl, created by the acclaimed Handspring Puppet Company. Representing all displaced children, many separated from their families, Little Amal will travel over 8,000km embodying the urgent message “Don’t forget about us”.
At this time of unprecedented global change, The Walk is an extraordinary artistic response: a cultural odyssey transcending borders, politics and language to tell a new story of shared humanity – and to ensure the world doesn’t forget the millions of displaced children, each with their own story, who are more vulnerable than ever during the global pandemic.
Little Amal urgently needs your help to advocate for and support young refugees. Please support The Walk by donating today.
7 October 2020: Walk with Amal: One little girl. One BIG hope.
Little Amal, a young refugee, embarks on a remarkable journey – an epic voyage that will take her across Turkey, across Europe. To find her mother. To get back to school. To start a new life. Will the world let her? Can she achieve what now seems more impossible than ever
Following the phenomenal international success of The Jungle, Good Chance, in collaboration with world-famous creators of War Horse Handspring Puppet Company, will present its most extraordinary work yet: The Walk – a travelling festival of art and hope in support of refugees, with Artistic Direction from Amir Nizar Zuabi.
In 2021, from the Syria-Turkey border all the way to the UK, The Walk will bring together celebrated artists, major cultural institutions, community groups and humanitarian organisations to create one of the most innovative and adventurous public artworks ever attempted.
At the heart of The Walk is ‘Little Amal’, a 3.5 metre-tall puppet of a young refugee girl, created by the acclaimed Handspring Puppet Company. Representing all displaced children, many separated from their families, Little Amal will travel over 8,000km embodying the urgent message “Don’t forget about us”.
At this time of unprecedented global change, The Walk is an extraordinary artistic response: a cultural odyssey transcending borders, politics and language to tell a new story of shared humanity – and to ensure the world doesn’t forget the millions of displaced children, each with their own story, who are more vulnerable than ever during the global pandemic.
Little Amal urgently needs your help to advocate for and support young refugees. Please support The Walk by donating today.DONATE