A puppet depicting a 10-year-old Syrian refugee has become a symbol of the refugee experience, bringing wide awareness of the millions of people forced to flee their homes in search of safety.

The puppet ‘Little Amal’ has been journeying around the world representing the world’s 100 million displaced people.

Currently in New York, the puppet started her journey in July 2021 on the Turkey–Syria border.

Little Amal also represents the almost 15 million child refugees. The largest proportion of refugees, 6.8 million, come from the Syrian Arab Republic, according to the UNHCR.

Recently, Little Amal has greeted hundreds of New Yorkers who have come out to see her, taking selfies and touching her gigantic hands. Crowds followed the puppet and her trailing brown hair down New York streets.

Little Amal was designed and built by South Africa’s Handspring Puppet Company and she requires four puppeteers to move, one for each arm, one supporting her back, and one inside walking on stilts.

So far, Little Amal has travelled almost 14,000 kilometres across 12 countries, organisers said.

She has travelled through Europe, meeting with Pope Francis, Jude Law, and Ukrainian refugees in Poland.

Inspired by Joe Murphy and Joe Robertson’s play “The Jungle,” from 2017, about a migrant camp in Calais, France, the puppet has become a symbol of the struggles of refugees.

She began her New York walk this week—in search of her uncle Samir, from Aleppo—appearing at fifty-five events across the five boroughs.

Amir Nizar Zuabi, the artistic director behind the project, says he hopes the crowds who are welcoming the puppet’s arrival will keep that reality in mind.

“By showing her their welcome, maybe they can extend their welcome to real people that are coming to this city as we speak and need support and need empathy and need their help,” he said in an interview with CNN.

“When we think about refugees, we omit the fact that at least half of them are children. Refugee children and unaccompanied minors and immigrant children are invisible in our societies, and giving them visibility was a big part of this project,” Mr Zuabi said.