'Little Amal' refugee puppet reaches Calais
The 11.5 ft tall puppet, which depicts a Syrian refugee girl, completed her passage through France as part of a 4,970 mile walk across Europe, in a bid to raise awareness about the plight of unaccompanied child refugees.
Amal started her journey on July 27 in Gaziantep, Turkey, near the Syrian border.
She has made stops in Rome to see Pope Francis, in Geneva to see the United Nations building, and will continue her trip - dubbed "The Walk" - toward her last stop in the northern English city of Manchester.
The Handspring Puppet Company, which created Amal, said they found their inspiration from the Calais "Jungle," which housed more than 10,000 migrants at its peak before being dismantled in 2016.
The field coordinator of a Calais-based association for children called Project Play, Marwa Mezdour, said the puppet's arrival brought feelings of hope.
"We continue to work for this, we continue to have hope that these rights could be respected here in France," she said.
