| April 27, 2004—“It was not easy for me to make friends in school at first,” Kami told World Bank experts on her recent visit to the institution, where she conveyed her experience of starting school as a five-year old HIV-positive South African Muppet who lives on Takalani Sesame. Kami and Gary Knell, President and CEO of Sesame Workshop, visited the World Bank earlier this month to share with Bank staff how to harness the power of “edutainment” for reaching young children and enhancing early childhood development. “Edutainment”=education + entertainment “At Sesame Workshop, we believe that television is the most important teacher in the history of mankind,” Knell said. “We decided to use it for positive educational interventions.” Bank staff, as well as more than 200 participants from government, local media and youth-serving organizations from seven African countries (Ethiopia, Ghana, Malawi, Nigeria, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe) connected through a videoconference, listened to Sesame Workshop’s efforts on teaching HIV/AIDS prevention and destigmatization of the disease.
Children and youth gravitate toward technology and media for entertainment, education and communication when given access to these resources. Sesame Workshop demonstrated how educationally entertaining programming -- “edutainment media” -- appeals to the children and youth it is targeting, and how to build on their interest in attempting to achieve determined development objectives.
“Kami and Sesame Workshop provided powerful examples how to creatively use media to lower issues of stigma and discrimination associated with HIV/AIDS, particularly among children and youth,” said Anthony Bloome, World Bank Operations Officer who works on youth, technology and HIV/AIDS in Africa, and who helped organize the event. Other presenters at the Using Edutainment Media for HIV Prevention events shared their experiences with "edutainment" media. They included David Andrews, President of Population Communications International, Hugh Rigby, Chief, Media & Information Resources, Center for Communication Programs at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, and Mahesh Mahalingam, Communications Advisor at UNAIDS. Sesame Workshop and Edutainment Around the World Sesame Workshop, the educational nonprofit organization behind Sesame shows, has mastered the “edutainment” formula. In its 35 years, the show has taught generations of children how to read, write, play with and respect others. Locally adapted and co-produced versions of the show, currently air in more than 120 countries. Each production is tailored for a local audience, focusing on domestic educational priorities determined in collaboration with local educators. A cast indigenous Muppets address important, and often difficult, issues through music, humor and stories. The show is known as Sesame Street in the United States, Ulitsa Sezam in Russia, Takalani Sesame in South Africa, and Alam Simsim in Egypt, for example. Kami is an affectionate, energetic and asymptomatic Muppet, who lost her mother to AIDS, and strives to destigmatize the disease to South African children, a country where HIV and AIDS are a huge scourge. Since Kami debuted on Takalani in 2002, she has been named a global “Champion for Children” infected with and affected by HIV/AIDS by UNICEF’s Executive Director, Carol Bellamy. “Children wouldn’t play with me or sit with me,” Kami said. “They were scared because I am HIV positive. They thought they would get sick. But I managed to show them with the help of some of my other friends that you couldn’t catch HIV by playing or sharing food with me.” On Alam Simsim, Khokha is a girl who dreams of becoming a doctor, or a pilot, or a teacher. Khokha is an important role model for Egyptian girls, in a country where female illiteracy is more than 50 percent. Getting A Good Start In Life Getting children off to a good start in life is at the core of the Millennium Development Goals, and is a key portion of the Bank’s work. By 2010, 1.4 billion children will be born into the world, 92 percent in developing countries. By 2025, the number of new births will rise to 2.7 billion. “A child’s early years last a lifetime. By the time a child enters school, this very early development period determines whether the child will succeed in school and beyond,” said Mary Eming Young, World Bank Lead Specialist on Education and Early Childhood Development. “Early childhood development is a pathway to lifelong physical and mental health, learning, and behavior.” The Bank currently has more than 30 projects or project components that focus on early childhood development. Connecting with non-traditional yet effective educational channels, such as Sesame Workshop, is important to the Bank to reach preschoolers. “It’s about sharing a common cause with the Bank that can help improve people’s lives around the world,” Knell said, adding that Sesame Workshop considers the Millennium Development Goals as well as the issues when deciding on their programming. "Based on the enthusiastic reception," Bloome said. "I suspect this won't be the last time that Sesame Workshop and their fabulous "Muppets" will be featured in the halls of the World Bank and our clients. I can tell you that my kids think it was the coolest thing that I spoke to a Muppet." Related Links:
Kami from Takalani Sesame Visits World Bank |
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