So I think for Jews, being a refugee has been something that is entrenched in the culture. And obviously, their safe haven became the tragedy for the other side of my family. And my grandparents fled Europe as World War II was starting to happen, looking for a safe haven. ZUABI: My father's Palestinian, and the family has traces in Palestine eight generations back. And so today on the show, stories of all kinds of Special Deliveries, from launching a telescope into the stratosphere to sending a vaccine to exactly the right cells in the human body and developing technology that can airdrop supplies into the most urgent situations.īut first, back to Amir Nizar Zuabi, who was actually the child of refugees himself, brought into a divided world and raised in East Jerusalem. But if it's successful, it can change, even save, a person's life. And transporting truly precious cargo like this - it can require painstaking planning and a treacherous journey. ZOMORODI: Amal's message is one that clearly couldn't be delivered through a letter or email. But to see that people are moved by a small gesture she does in the middle of the street, and suddenly you look around and people are wiping their tears, and that's very, very beautiful to see. I hope the hearts are open and are willing to accept. So you need to think about, how would you like to be treated? What are your fears? They're not so different. And the minute you treat a refugee like this, you go, she is me. I want people to see themselves when they see a refugee. ZUABI: I don't want anybody to feel sad for refugees. And I need to treat her that way in order for her journey to mean anything. And for me to honor this experience, I need to think of her as a singular, complicated human being. And, yeah, I talk about her as if she's a real child because we're walking in the name of tens of thousands of children. ZOMORODI: She sounds very real to you, the way you talk about her. And she is a representation of many others like her. And she loves jumping in puddles, which is something we discovered a couple of days ago when it started raining. She doesn't really like when it becomes cold and dark. But she really, really loves the sensation of sun on her skin. And she's on this quest to maybe find somebody she knows. ZUABI: It's a continuous journey of a 9-year-old girl. ZOMORODI: Amir Nizar and his team spent years getting Amal ready for "The Walk." It's a project happening over the course of five months, all in an effort to deliver a very special message from Amal. And it's - it never ceases to amaze me that this is a moment, and suddenly life is created. ![]() Suddenly, she's a living creature with thoughts, with complexities, with wants, with fears. Or our puppeteers together take a breath. ZUABI: What is very, very beautiful is she's furniture, but there's a moment where she stands up and she takes a breath. ZOMORODI: As she walks, a whole team of puppeteers manipulate her expressions and gestures - one on stilts, two at her sides and a few all around - in order to bring Amal to life. And we'll continue to Germany, Belgium, back into France and then across the English Channel and - from Dover to Manchester. ZUABI: Then into France, and now we're in Switzerland. ZUABI: We walked her through Turkey, then through Greece, then through Italy. ZOMORODI: And for the past several months, Amal's been walking the path that many Syrian refugees travel each year. You know, she's very visible because a lot of these kids aren't visible. ![]() ZUABI: She's very, very big, which is part of the idea. ![]() ZOMORODI: She's 3 1/2 meters, or 11 feet tall. This 9-year-old Syrian girl is actually a 3 1/2-meter puppet. ZUABI: I think the first thing that you see when you look at Amal is something very sad but, at the same time, very strong. She left her house in one of the rounds of the violence, then was in the refugee camps still around the border when she lost her family in the mayhem of war and conflict, like many children do. She - she's from Reef Halab, from the area of Aleppo. ZOMORODI: And today, we're going to begin with a little girl on a long journey - Amal.ĪMIR NIZAR ZUABI: She's called Amal, which in Arabic means hope. (SOUNDBITE OF ALEKSANDER TERRIS' "TUILERIES ROMANCE") UNIDENTIFIED CHILDREN: (Chanting, unintelligible).
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