Big Bird's charitable China return
The world’s most beloved eight feet tall bird returned to Beijing recently to celebrate the launch of a new outreach initiative.
Sesame Street’s Big Bird joined senior executives from Sesame Workshop, the nonprofit educational organisation behind Sesame Street; China Youth Development Foundation (CYDF), best known for launching the 'Project Hope' programme to help provide underprivileged children with access to education throughout China; and MSD, a global healthcare leader, as they announced the production and distribution of emergency response and preparedness content for children and their families in China.
Providing tools to address the needs of children in the aftermath of a natural disaster and supporting the development of Hope Primary Schools in poverty-stricken rural areas, the partners will deliver educational materials, featuring Big Bird and his friends, in two phases free of charge.
In the first phase, the partners will focus on emergency response - adapting and distributing a kit of materials that contain games, activity sheets, a caregiver’s guide, and children’s activity book available March 2011. The kit will be designed for group use, as well as for individual children and caregivers. In the aftermath of a crisis or disaster, children’s school time is often disrupted and they may feel a sense of displacement and trauma. In such circumstances, the activities can provide children of all ages with a sense of stability, safety, and normalcy that may otherwise be lacking from their lives.
The partners have worked closely with CYDF in evaluating the materials to ensure they are appropriate and effective for Chinese children and their communities. One thousand kits will be distributed to classrooms, which will reach approximately 40,000 children in provinces such as Qinghai, Gansu, Sichuan, and Guangxi.
For the second phase on emergency preparedness, the partners will distribute a kit containing: a DVD with songs and activities to help children learn about getting ready for emergencies with their families (including knowing your first and last name, knowing your parents’ names, and preparing an emergency kit together); a parent/caregiver magazine that involves the family in creating an emergency plan and reaching out to the community; and a children’s activity book that invites children to engage in various activities as they learn with characters about how families prepare for emergencies, available September 2011.
Seventy-five thousand kits will be distributed to individual families in 15 provinces that have been severely impacted by or are prone to crises such as Yunnan, Guizhou, Jiangxi, and Henan. Additionally, these kits will be given to children in the 125 kindergartens in Shanghai that currently have special Sesame Street reading corners, areas where Sesame Street videos and posters are available.
Social Links