One of the most significant community art projects will take place in the body of Little Amal, a 3.5-meter puppet symbolizing a fake nine-year-old Syrian child, between July and November 2021. Little Amal will journey from the Turkish-Syrian border in Gaziantep to Manchester, UK, during The Walk, a four-month-long event (July 27 – Nov. 3) to raise awareness about the refugee issue. She is looking for her mother and trying to collect money for migrants in Europe. She'd also want to start school. She will go via Turkey, Greece, Italy, France, Switzerland, Germany, Belgium, and eventually the U.k.

This has been described as a “traveling festival of art and hope” on behalf of refugees, and it brings together renowned artists, significant cultural institutions, church leaders, schools, community groups, and humanitarian organizations. Over 250 partners and artists have been involved in the announcement of new artist commissions and events along the 8,000-kilometer route. Manchester International Festival, National Theatre, Shakespeare's Globe, Royal Opera House, Roundhouse, Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts, zmir International Puppet Days, and The Biennale of Western Balkans are among the partners. BoWB, UNIMA Greece, Piraeus Municipal Theatre, Piccolo Teatro di Milano, Teatro di Roma, MAXXI Museo, Institut du Monde Arabe, La Villette, La Criée Théâtre National de Marseille, BOZAR Centre for Fine Arts, Théâtre National Wallonie-Bruxelles, La Monnaie, Grand Théâtre de Genève, Schlachthaus Theater Bern, Ruhrfestspiele Recklinghausen, and Sommerblut Festival Cologne are among others.

Viewers will follow Little Amal's adventure online and at community events. New major artistic commissions, city-wide community performances, and private gatherings will greet her in each hamlet, town, or city she reaches. Little Amal's trip begins in Gaziantep with a Qanadil lantern outdoor light arrangement. The city will gradually become lighted, one lantern at a time, giving a path of light for her to pursue. In Cesme (western Turkey), she will follow a trail of abandoned shoes to the shore. The artwork, developed by K2 Contemporary Art Centre, symbolizes the hundreds of individuals who died during the treacherous sea journey.

Partners from Greece and beyond will join forces in Ioannina (Greece) to overcome the seven-kilometer distance between the bustling city center and the Katsikas refugee camp with an outdoor work of lights and texts. Little Amal feels worried about getting lost in Athens while she is alone. She attaches a bright red yarn thread to a lamppost and goes around the city, leaving a trail. When she comes face to face with a UNIMA-HELLAS-created minotaur puppet, she needs to determine whether to overcome her fear and embrace the beast. Little Amal is met at Bari (Italy) by a giant puppet of an Italian Nonna (grandmother), who gives some knowledge on how to handle the problems she may experience on the remainder of her voyage.

Little Amal's forsaken hometown comes to life in her thoughts when she arrives in Rome. As Syrian visual artist Tammam Azzam's works are displayed onto the buildings around her, memories of wartime resurface. Following a trip across the harbour and bridges of Marseille, a Syrian filmmaker and visual artist Ammar al-Beik will gift Little Amal with a jacket underneath the mirrored canopy of the Vieux Port Pavilion. Outside the Institut du Monde Arabe in Paris, a refugee camp artwork will be constructed, and Amal will tour the rows of tents, searching for clues of home.

She will see and listen to the flashes of shadow art and soundtracks from each tent, depicting the various nations from which refugees have migrated. In Brussels Dancers, parkour and circus artists will collaborate with some of the city's world-renowned choreographers to produce a dance performance that explores her painful memories of home.

The Ruhfestspiele Festival (Germany, one of Europe's oldest theatrical festivals) will lead the Recklinghausen community in the development of a "road of welcome" around the city, with painted stones showing words of welcome and optimism for her. Little Amal is turning 10 years in London. Her birthday celebrations start with a morning choir presentation at the Royal Opera House, accompanied by a birthday party at the V&A Museum, to which youngsters from all around London are invited.

Her special day concludes with a stroll through Central London, where she will get birthday wishes from many friends she had made along the way. Amal's arrival in Manchester puts her epic journey to a conclusion. Manchester International Festival will feature a unique exhibition about children, built-in collaboration with local schools, and immigrant groups. Amal will realize as she examines the exhibition that she is prepared to go on a new, perhaps long journey: making a new life in her new house. Little Amal is a symbol for the millions of uprooted refugee children who have been isolated from their families. Her desperate plea to the rest of the world is, "Don't forget about us." Little Amal was created by Stephen Daldry, David Lan, Tracey Seaward, and Naomi Webb for Good Chance Theatre, in collaboration with the Handspring Puppet Company, and directed by Amir Nizar Zuabi.

Little Amal is controlled by three puppeteers: one on stilts who also acts as her face, and one on each of her arms. There are 10 puppeteers; two of them are refugees who have traveled the trek themselves. The puppet is made of carbon fiber and molded cane. The Walk has created an Education Program that will bring together young people from refugee and host societies to build bonds of friendships. The program covers a 70-plus page Education & Activity pack and Teachers' Notes in six languages, with artwork by Syrian artist Diala Brisly. A sequence of free online education sessions for teachers and educational leaders is also available, as is “Make With Amal,” an online engagement initiative of creative activities inspired by Amal's journey. The Walk features a Kickstarter campaign, in which the public is invited to assist support Amal's journey at £1 every step. Digital postcards, Walk t-shirts, special zoom events with The Walk actors and crew, and original paintings by Good Chance Ensemble artist Majid Adin, a UK-based artist, and animator from Iran, are among the rewards.