Little Amal is a refugee Globe-al phenomenon

Little Amal, an 11ft-tall puppet of a Syrian refugee drew crowds wherever she went in South-east London last month, on her way to Manchester. Here, two young school pupils, Isaac and Laila Motalib-Haque, describe what it was like and the effect seeing her had on them

Amal is a 3.5 metre-tall puppet of a nine-year-old unaccompanied Syrian refugee girl. She walked 8,000km walk across 65 towns, cities and villages from the borders of Syria to Manchester.

She represents all the refugee children who have had to flee from their countries, because of war and persecution.

Her name means Hope in Arabic and she was created by the Handspring Puppet Company. As well as highlighting the plight of unaccompanied minors like herself, her walk also raises money for children.

Just before our 10th birthday, we learnt about unaccompanied refugee children, from Choose Love – a charity which helps refugees.

We were shocked by the stories of unaccompanied children who were living on the Greek islands of Lesbos and Samos.

They lived alone in overcrowded refugee camps in dangerous, degrading and unsanitary conditions. Sleeping out in the open on mats and cardboard boxes. Some were 10 years old – similar to us in age.

We wanted to help these children so we decided to do a sponsored silence and raised £300 for Choose Love. For our 10th birthday, we asked our friends and family to

donate to our fundraiser instead of buying us presents. This money would help pay for essentials such as food and shelter.

It was great to  receive so much support even from people we didn’t know. Choose Love highlighted our campaign and we managed to raise just over £1,000.

It made us realise toys and gifts do not make you feel as satisfied as helping other children who do not even have the basic things which we take for granted.

We were so excited to hear about Little Amal’s walk and the fact that she would be visiting South London.

We wanted to donate our spending money but also to meet her and her handlers from the Good Chance Theatre Group.

They were accompanying Amal and highlighting the plight of refugees to a mainstream audience.

We were delighted to be invited by The Globe Theatre, where Amal would be meeting the cast of Twelfth Night – a brilliant play by William Shakespeare.

It was great to get a glimpse of Amal before she met the very excited crowd of supporters outside the Globe Theatre.

The actors from Twelfth Night put on a great show for Amal and all the supporters. The crowds started chanting ‘Refugees are welcome here.’

Some protestors in Greece pelted her with stones. They didn’t like the idea of this refugee Muslim girl walking through their town.

It was shocking to see such hatred towards a puppet and made us even more aware of the challenges faced by unaccompanied children.

It was great to see Amal and her handlers receiving such a warm welcome from the Pope when she visited The Vatican in Italy.

We were invited by the Victoria and Albert Museum to attend Amal’s 10th birthday party and meet her and some refugee children and their families.

It was a great party with welcome banners, songs in Arabic and yummy cup cakes.

Lucy and Shannon who work at the V&A very kindly met us at the gate and walked us through the amazing museum to Amal’s party.

After the celebrations we joined guests who were mainly refugee children and their families to build a welcoming cardboard city.

The best moment was when some other children asked if they could join us so we could build together.

Amal walked through the cardboard city we had all built and hugged one of the tall buildings.

She also patted Laila on the head.

To help unaccompanied refugee children, donate to Amal’s campaign with Choose Love, go to https://donate.chooselove.org/campaigns/walks-amal-fund/