Sesame Street reaches Haiti
Aid agency Mercy Corps will work with Sesame Workshop, the non-profit educational organisation behind Sesame Street, to integrate Elmo, Cookie Monster, other Sesame Street favourites into emotional recovery work with parents and children.
Sesame Workshop has dubbed one DVD featuring two Sesame home videos into Creole, and produced three short original films shot in Haiti specific to the country’s post-earthquake challenges. Mercy Corps will distribute at least 1,000 DVDs of this programming to schools, orphanages and other child-friendly facilities in the country.
Mercy Corps will distribute at least 1,000 DVDs of this engaging, educational programming to schools, orphanages and other child-friendly facilities in the country.
“We are thrilled to work with Sesame Workshop to bring joy and learning to the children of Haiti,” said Mercy Corps’ Haiti youth programme manager Kyle Dietrich. “This partnership combines Sesame Workshop’s expertise developing outstanding content for children with Mercy Corps’ experience working with children and parents in post-disaster environments.”
“For more than 40 years, Sesame Workshop has been providing children with educational lessons, loveable characters and messages of healing. Children in Haiti are in a terribly difficult situation, and they desperately need the normalcy, knowledge and inspiration our programs can provide,” explained Gary Knell, president and CEO of Sesame Workshop. “It is through the support and commitment of funders and partners that we are able to create and distribute this important content to children in need.”
This Sesame Street project in Haiti is made possible through generous grants from Connie and Bob Lurie and Motorola Foundation to Sesame Workshop.
Mercy Corps will distribute 1,000 DVDs of the films throughout Haiti, and may distribute up to 5,000 additional copies in the coming months. The DVDs will be sent to schools, orphanages, hospitals, health clinics, youth centers and beyond. The Sesame Street episodes are also being screened at Cinema Under the Stars (Sinema Anba Zetwal), a Mercy Corps-supported tour of interactive open-air events that use film, music, and skits to educate and entertain tens of thousands of Haitians in earthquake-affected areas.
The films will be integrated into Mercy Corps’ Comfort for Kids programme, which is part of Mercy Corps’ multi-faceted response to the earthquake that struck Haiti on January 12th. It trains parents and other caregivers to help children emotionally recover from the earthquake. The organisation has delivered emergency food supplies, enabled nearly 6,400 Haitians to earn much-needed income, and created drainage ditches, clean water systems and latrines. Mercy Corps is also providing income opportunities for people in Haiti’s Central Plateau, where hundreds of thousands fled after the earthquake.
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