Little Amal From Syria

Last Updated On: 25 September 2025

In 2022 I attended the meetings to learn a traditional Syrian song we’d be singing to greet Little Amal – a 12ft tall puppet who repesents a 10-yr old girl who found herself staying inside a Syrian asylum centre because most of her family and her home were gone.

The authorities would help find her uncle, but advised her there was little hope.

The puppeteers all refugees in various states of flux took on the huge task of replicating the child’s entrapment as an empathic gesture. As an activistic way of taking a message of hope to the world, and to connect with as many children as possible across the globe. Little Amal came to Folkestone and I took part.

I can’t tell you how moving it was to see her come around the corner – from the beach into view – as they walked her along the old railway line on the Harbour Arm. The Walk film was moving, the dozen puppeteers amazing as they undertook this mamoth walk with her from the Syrian border with Turkey to the UK, sometimes sailing.

We saw her go through Greece where she was met with animosity.

Italy embraced her.

France gave her an EU flag, and a token passport.

I cried. So symbolic on so many levels. I was and remain strongly anti-Brexit… I felt and feel the grief of leaving. It still hurts when you see and feel the ripples.

The director and a couple of exec producers spoke to the film audience about what an immense task it was to capture the journey. The full circle where so many feelings of love and loss intermingle. My learning is knowing I’m on the right path for me, my feelings are fully intact, my tears let it be known.

We have to be better, we have to try harder to stop the bitterness that certain players have managed to unleash, here and in other countries.

I don’t know if you have similar hurt feelings for what has transpired over the interim 8-yrs but if you do, we’re in sympatico. This picture was taken when she visited Canterbury Cathedral.

I have no pictures in exchange for absorbing the moment.

I love how the lighting and architecture have captured an Arabic mood.

Highly recommend it if and when you get the chance to see the film or take part in supporting the project.

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