Salina Elementary School students greet Little Amal, a 12-foot puppet of a 10-year-old Syrian refugee girl, on Sept. 26 as she walks past their school during her walk across America to raise awareness and money for refugee children.
Salina Elementary School students greet Little Amal, a 12-foot puppet of a 10-year-old Syrian refugee girl, on Sept. 26 as she walks past their school during her walk across America to raise awareness and money for refugee children.
By SUE SUCHYTA
Times-Herald Newspapers
DEARBORN – Little Amal, a 12-foot puppet of a 10-year-old Syrian refugee girl, visited Dearborn Sept. 26 during her journey across the country to raise money and awareness for refugee children.
From Sept. 7 to Nov. 5, from Boston to San Diego, the intrepid puppet will raise funds and awareness for refugee children around the world.
Little Amal’s visit to Dearborn, which has a large and vibrant Arabic community, was especially symbolic, with the towering puppet given the full VIP treatment, from being greeted by the mayor at ACCESS, to receiving school supplies and a checkup at the ACCESS mobile health clinic in the parking lot.
Area residents cheered and welcomed Little Amal all along the walk route, and at Salina Elementary and Intermediate schools, where throngs of students welcomed her with star-struck enthusiasm.
The intermediate school volleyball team served a game ball to Amal. Later, she was given an opportunity to tap on an Arabic drum.
One adult drum ensemble accompanied Little Amal as she walked from ACCESS to Salina, where two distinct youth Arabic drum ensembles serenaded, and where singers from the Dearborn Youth Theatre entertained her against the backdrop of a colorful, Arabic-themed mural completed last summer by a student Pockets of Perception team.
Mayor Abdullah Hammoud said Little Amal’s visit was exciting.
“I think it’s a great demonstration of refugees and immigration and the plight of these immigrants,” he said.
Student Arabic drummers, and singers from the Dearborn Youth Theatre, greet and perform for Little Amal, a 12-foot puppet of a 10-year-old Syrian refugee girl, on Sept. 26 at Salina Intermediate School during her walk across America to raise awareness and money for refugee children.
Hammoud said the visit highlighted the importance of the impact of immigrants, refugees and asylum seekers and the impact that they have on the communities in which they reside from an economic and a multicultural perspective.
“They add so much diversity and so much intrinsic value,” he said.
Consultant and community advocate Bilal Hammoud said Little Amal’s visit to Dearborn was exciting but not surprising, since the city has long been a hub for immigrants.
“To have this symbol of something bigger that has traveled the world coming to our community and sharing that with us is amazing,” he said. “It will be quite something special to interact with her in this capacity and give her the tour.”
Educator Youssef Mosallam said the visit was a great event for the South End of Dearborn, which epitomizes the American dream for so many people.
“This has been an area that almost every immigrant to our country has come,” he said. “It didn’t matter if they were Italian, German, Polish, Lebanese, Syrian, Palestinian – it doesn’t matter. Everybody came through the South End of Dearborn.”
Dearborn Mayor Abdullah Hammoud greats Little Amal, a 12-foot puppet of a 10-year-old Syrian refugee girl, on Sept. 26 at ACCESS, 2651 Saulino Court, during her walk across America to raise awareness and money for refugee children.
Mosallam said the hometown of Henry Ford offered opportunities for immigrants.
“This event just exemplifies what this country stands for – a place of refuge for those that are seeking to better themselves, and I am very proud of our community and our state for everything that we have done to bring anyone in and help them along,” he said.
Lujine Nasralla, communications specialist for ACCESS and the Arab American Museum, said Little Amal’s visit to Dearborn will be a unique stop along her journey because it has the highest concentration of Arab Americans in the nation, which should make her feel as close to home as she ever will be in the United States.
“A lot of people here have the same story she does,” she said. “They are also immigrants or refugees and have been displaced from their homelands, but here in Dearborn they’ve been able to make a home and find a home together – a community with each other.”
To donate to the fund, go to chooselove.org/theamalfund. To learn more about the cross-country journey, go to walkwithamal.org.
ACCESS employees, Arabic drummers and other supporters join Little Amal, a 12-foot puppet of a 10-year-old Syrian refugee girl, on Sept. 26 as she walks from ACCESS, 2651 Saulino Court, to Salina Elementary and Intermediate schools in Dearborn during her walk across America to raise awareness and money for refugee children.