CHANGE
v. to make radically different
n. a fresh set of clothing; money

Change t-shirts 52 times in 2010 to raise awareness and funds for 52 world changers.

What do you change for?


Tuesday, March 2, 2010

SESAME WORKSHOP


The longest street in the world is composed of “writers, researchers, child development experts, puppeteers, actors, producers, corporations, foundations and most importantly, you.”

And where is this street located exactly? It’s Sesame Street!

Initially an experiment to understand the tools needed to engage children in educational TV programming, Sesame took off from its start in 1968. And over 4 decades later, Sesame Workshop continues to expand and to reach audiences worldwide with the show’s original enthusiastic agenda.

While many may think of Sesame Street as a TV program that consists of daily showings and reruns, in reality, there is a much larger picture that encompasses the brilliance that is Sesame Street, and that brilliance lies in the Sesame Workshop.

Sesame Workshop strives to EDUCATE. With the proper tools of promoting peace and wellness, Sesame Workshop has made a lasting impression around the world; from regions deep in ethnic conflict, struggling with economic stability to areas engaged in endorsing healthy habits and advancing literacy skills.

With outreach in over 120 countries, Sesame Workshop works to identify, focus, and educate children on issues directly affecting their lives. The puppets and characters that were created to engage youngsters in educational programming have thus become icons in certain cultures.
In some countries, like in Kosovo, children of different ethnicities attend different schools and even have different postal services. Thus, each group is nurtured in isolation from the other, forcing stereotypes and images of “the other” to support this sense of hatred that surrounded their childhood.

In 2004, Sesame Workshop and UNICEF adapted Sesame Street to deal with this ethnic tension in Kosovo. Sesame Workshop producer, Basia Nikonorow, explains that “Hate … is a learned trait… Children don’t naturally hate someone of another ethnicity; this is taught to them or they pick it up from snippets of conversation and stereotyping.”

By forming a flowing montage of images, with children of different ethnicities in Kosovo performing an interactive storyline, Nikonorow and her team were able to mold new expectations of respect and appreciation among the Serb, Albanian, Roma, Turkish, and Croatian children in Kosovo.

Early results from children who watched the show illustrate its success by their newfound interactions and mutual respect for their neighbors, who may be of a different ethnicity.

Such original ideas form the structure of the most basic needs in life. In order to succeed and grow, a nation must place education at the center of its culture’s development.

Sesame Workshop is inculcating such crucial values from the very start.

“'We decided that kids shouldn’t suffer from the mess the adults had created,’ Nikonorow says. ‘They deserve a carefree childhood.’”

Please visit sesameworkshop.org to learn more.

(Sesame Workshop addresses the critical developmental needs of children across the globe).

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