Sesame Square launches in Nigeria
Sesame Workshop, the non-profit educational organisation behind Sesame Street has announced plans to launch in Nigeria with an original, half-hour programming block called Sesame Square.
The series will feature age-appropriate content focused on educational messages and activities for Nigeria’s youngest viewers about reading, counting, and staying in school. Viewers will laugh and learn alongside two Muppets of Sesame Square, and one of these furry friends will be named through a national mobile vote via SMS text.
Sesame Square will be hosted by two puppet characters developed especially for the program: Kami, a girl Muppet who is HIV-positive and has golden fur and a taste for adventure and knowledge, and her friend, a furry blue boy Muppet who is energetic and finds ways to make even the simplest task fun and exciting. The boy Muppet’s name will be selected by a national mobile vote.
Sesame Square is a co-production between Sesame Workshop in New York and Ileke Media in Nigeria. Yemisi Ilo, Sesame Street Nigeria’s executive producer and director of business development commented: “Sesame Square exemplifies the core of Ileke Media’s and Sesame Workshop’s shared mission to foster respect and understanding through the power of media. It is our hope that the series will make a strong impact among Nigerian children and their families, addressing relevant social issues, as well as providing them with a strong foundation of basic literacy and numeracy that will instill an interest in and lifelong love of learning.”
In addition to the television series, which will broadcast over three years on terrestrial TV, the Sesame Square project plans to produce two outreach kits for distribution to schools and NGOs across the country. The kits will focus on literacy and health, and will be distributed through a training program for formal and informal educators. The outreach program focuses on ensuring that children living in even the most remote parts of the country still have access to the educational messaging provided by the beloved Muppets from Sesame Street.
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