By Tanya Terry
Children and adults alike looked in amazement as a 12-foot puppet traveled through parts of Flint’s cultural area on the evening of September 26.
The puppet, named Little Amal, depicts a 10-year-old Syrian refugee. She has become a global symbol of human rights, especially those of young refugees.
Many children offered Amal flowers, which she accepted from them, as she walked from the now boarded-up Flint Central High School, towards the Gloria Coles Flint Public Library. Adults didn’t seem to be able to take their eyes off Amal either, as many of them took photos with their camera phones.
At the library, Amal was greeted with song and dance as she walked through a portal of flowers.
There, Flint Native and Artist Tunde Olaniran, founder of Magic Wheel Creative, told those who gathered around Amal her story. Olaniran said Amal was on a long journey, looking for her mother.
Olaniran said he had a song for Amal, but also asked if anyone else had anything they wanted to say to her.
One person said she was praying for Amal and others like her.
Some children told her they thought she was beautiful.
“It’s nice to meet you,” said one young boy.
There were many other warm welcomes given.
The response was exactly what the producers of Amal Walks Across America had hoped for.
David Lan, one of two producers of the walk, discussed with the Courier his inspiration for Amal Walks Across America.
“It started from-I’m a theatre producer,” Lan explained. “For many, many years, I ran a theatre in London called the Young Vic Theatre. I produced a show about a refugee camp in France that was up for many years. In the course of producing that show, I met a number of people who made very long journeys-refugees, asylum seekers. They were particularly out of Syria at that time, but also many other countries-Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq…who’d left their homes because they had to because of war, because of violence, because of persecution. We were looking for a way of responding to that in a way which was strong enough to express some of the experience of people who have made-hundreds of thousands, millions of people-who’ve made these journeys.”
Lan said the journeys impacted the countries the refugees and asylum seekers moved through in a profound way.
“In 2021, we commissioned a company in based in Cape Town (in South Africa) to make us a puppet that would suggest a child refugee from Syria. At first, when we thought about it, we thought maybe we would make the journey-as actors or as performers, but then we decided that wouldn’t be a very good idea. But it would be better to create a means by which people could have a strong emotional connection to the experience of people who made these journeys.”
In 2021, Amal walked from the Syrian-Turkish border, 5,000 miles across Europe.
“We invited artists, singer, musicians, painters, to find a way of welcoming this lonely, hungry, frightened child into their village, town or city.”
Amal continued to be invited to more cities and is currently walking across America, from Boston to San Diego.
The Amal Fund with Choose Love is raising money to help especially in the education of young refugees, according to Lan. Lan said this is because once the refugees find a place to live, if they are fortunate enough to do so, they have lost many years of education. About $800,000 has been raised so far.
To learn more, visit: https://walkwithamal.org/the-amal-fund/.
