Walking through the streets of Gaziantep, Turkey, a 12-foot-tall puppet of a 9-year-old Syrian refugee girl, called 'Little Amal', attracts the attention of passersby.
Towering over crowds, it's the beginning of a transcontinental trip that organisers hope will bring awareness to the refugee crisis, and the plight of millions of displaced children around the world.
Little Amal's journey will take her 5,000 miles, across eight countries.
The puppet is the centrepiece for an art project, named 'The Walk'. Amal means "hope" in Arabic.
Little Amal began her journey on Tuesday evening (27 July 2021) in the southern Turkish border town of Gaziantep, and is enroute to the English city of Manchester.
She's expected to travel through Turkey, Greece, Italy, France, Switzerland, Germany, and Belgium before reaching her final destination in the UK.
Organizers say the journey across Europe was designed to emulate one of the many routes taken by migrants every year, over land and by sea.
Accompanying Little Amal on her long, 5,000-mile journey will be four puppeteers who hold and animate her.
