Good Chance is a humanitarian theatre company founded in 2015 in the unofficial refugee camp in Calais, France that’s often called “The Jungle”. It is behind an exciting  public art project that will travel across two continents and many national borders. (see map below) The Walk will see a 3.5-meter puppet of a nine-year-old girl named Little Amal travel over 8,000 kilometers across Turkey and Europe in search of her mother. According to the project creators, she is “an emblem of the millions of displaced refugee children separated from their families”.

The theater group, which made its name co-creating theatrical shows with people living in the Calais camp, has teamed up with Handspring Puppet Company, the award-winning creators of the puppets in the production of War Horse. From April to July 2021,  Little Amal will travel from the Syria-Turkey border across Greece, Italy, Switzerland, Germany, Belgium and France to reach the UK, culminating in a huge public event at the Manchester International Festival.

Along the journey, more than 70 communities will welcome Little Amal with street parades and city-wide performances of music, dance and theatre. Each step of the trip will be documented and shared online. International audiences are invited to share Little Amal’s story to raise awareness of the plight of displaced people.

An education program will also run in tandem with The Walk’s artistic events. Before, during and after her journey, Little Amal will connect with young people from refugee and non-refugee communities through creative learning projects, developed specifically for each location. The program aims to highlight the millions of displaced children who are more vulnerable than ever during the global pandemic. This will be accompanied by a fundraising campaign to help support refugees, which will take place as Little Amal travels across Turkey and Europe.

You can learn more about the project here.