Community groups sew blanket for Little Amal, 12-foot puppet raising awareness about Syrian refugees

PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) -- She trekked across Europe in 2021, calling attention to the Syrian refugee crisis.

Now, Little Amal will continue that conversation with a journey to Philadelphia to show the parallels between refugees and the city's homeless residents.

At Broad Street Ministries, volunteers are sewing a blanket for the 12-foot-tall puppet.

Philadelphia is Little Amal's fifth stop along her 6,000 mile journey across the U.S., visiting almost three dozen cities.

"We're in the middle of the most challenging part, which is designing it," said Helen Cunningham, blanket mender-in-charge.

Cunningham is just one of the blanket menders-in-charge assembling the large swaths of fabric.

It's part of what will be a welcome place for her to sleep at Love Park, calling attention to the one of the big issues plaguing our own city: homelessness.

"These communities, the refugee communities and houseless communities, they share a very common problem, which is where to sleep that night," said Taibi Magar, Co-artistic director of Philadelphia Theatre Company.

The blanket will be a 12 foot square and the menders are using recycled materials from other projects, so there's zero waste effort.

"Art is a a very powerful experience," said Magar. "It's the only artform that literally asks you to step into someone else's shoes. And so in the experience, we hope to bring awareness and compassion to these fellow citizens of our communities."

Little Amal comes to Philadelphia September 13th.

The plan is for her to walk up Broad Street from the Suzanne Roberts Theatre at 7 p.m.