New Arabic 'Sesame Street' aims to help refugee children
According to the show's executive producer, Scott Cameron, the show aims to each social-emotional skills such as "coping strategies like counting to five and belly breathing."
By AARON REICHSesame Street creator Joan Ganz Cooney poses with some of the cast during a 40th anniversary street naming celebration in New York(photo credit: SHANNON STAPLETON/ REUTERS)
For the first time, the most famous street in children's television is coming out in Arabic in an effort to help refugee children, CNN reported.Throughout its 50 years of running, acclaimed children's show Sesame Street has been aired in over 70 languages and 150 countries around the world, including Rehov SumSum (Sesame Street in Hebrew), which aired in Israel in multiple versions since the '80s. The series has reached an iconic status in children oriented television, and has won more awards than any other children's show.In 1996, a survey reported that 95% of all American preschoolers had watched the show by age three.Now, the residents of Sesame Street are plying their trade in Arabic in a new series titled Ahlan Simsim, as a result of a joint effort between the Sesame Workshop and the International Rescue Committee (IRC).According to the IRC, over six million children have been displaced due to the ever escalating Syria crisis, leaving them in the middle of tragedy and chaos they can hardly begin to easily process. Many of these children have most of their memories consisting of violence and chaos, including the deaths of friends and family.According to the IRC, the average refugee is displaced for 20 years. As a result, children are robbed of almost all aspects of childhood – including education."Less than 2% of all humanitarian aid funding goes on education, even though half of the world's refugees are kids," IRC president and CEO David Miliband said in a recent interview on 60 Minutes.The new show, as well as the development of services that are able to directly reach refugee children, was the result of a $100 million MacArthur Foundation award won by the two organizations in 2017.According to Sesame Workshop, first season of Ahlan Simsim is slated to air locally in February 2020 across the region, but will also be available digitally.Rather than simply be a simple translation of the American version, Ahlan Simsim stars two main characters: A young Muppet boy new to the neighborhood named Jad and a Muppet girl named Basma that befriends him. The two are followed by a baby goat named Ma'zooza.It is implied that Jad is a refugee himself.However, classic residents of Sesame Street like Elmo, Grover and Cookie Monster are also set to feature.According to the show's executive producer, Scott Cameron, the show aims to teach social-emotional skills such as "coping strategies like counting to five and belly breathing."We know from research that these 'emotional ABCs' are especially important for kids who've experienced the trauma of war and displacement.""A big part of the program is doing research in order to learn what works and what doesn't for children in crisis settings," Hallie Ruvin, spokesperson for Sesame Workshop, told CNN. "There is little research out there about what interventions work best, and Ahlan Simsim will double the existing evidence base," through research conducted by NYU's Global TIES for Children Center.According to Ruvin, the program aims to share their findings in order to encourage both governments and humanitarian organizations to incorporate similar programs and invest resources in early childhood crisis settings.While the television series is set to premier in 2020, the direct reaching services were launched in November 2018.These early childhood development facilitators work with children face-to-face in shelters, tents and apartments in countries throughout the region.However, the IRC also runs center-based services, such as preschool classrooms – which, of course, will soon be equipped with Ahlan Simsim videos, stories and other teachers' aid materials.
