Thousands of paper-made butterflies have been spotted around the San Francisco Bay Area, in libraries, schools and city halls. Created out of everything from coffee filters to scraps of construction paper, the colorful winged insects collectively make up The Butterfly Effect: Migration is Beautiful, a youth-led art and activism project raising awareness about the 15,000 children who have been and are currently being held in U.S. immigration detention centers.

“We want [migrant youth] to know that there are people in this country who don’t like them, but there are also people in this country who are welcoming to them,” Kaia, an 11-year-old from Alameda, California, tells Remezcla. “Not everybody here is saying, ‘Go away.’”

Kaia created The Butterfly Effect with her friend Lily Ellis, 10, earlier this year. After the girls learned how many young people were detained in immigration detention centers, they grew upset and wanted to share the statistic in a creative way that could elicit similar emotions of dismay in others.

The girls got together and began creating with their hands a visual representation that has since taken off with the help of their adult allies and other community groups and organizations. Each butterfly creation represents one child held in detention.

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