Giving Compass' Take:

· According to Fast Company, Sesame Street is introducing three new Muppets specifically designed to help displaced children from Syria. The new Muppets, Jad, Basma, and Ma’zooza, will first be seen when the new international version of Sesame Street airs next month.

· How does this demonstrate media's role in social impact?

· Check out this article to read more about Syria's refugee children.


When the newest international version of Sesame Street airs on February 2 on channels in the Middle East, it will include three new characters: Jad, a furry yellow Muppet who’s new to the neighborhood; Basma, a purple Muppet who welcomes him; and Ma’zooza, a baby goat who helps provide comic relief.

It’s not the first version of the show in the region. But it was created to reach a specific new audience in particular—the millions of children who have been displaced by the war in Syria or other crises and may no longer have the chance to go to school. Sesame Workshop partnered with the International Refugee Committee to develop the show, called Ahlan Simsim, Arabic for “welcome sesame.”

“One of the big gaps in humanitarian assistance for so long has been that only about 3% of humanitarian aid goes to education, and of that, only a tiny fraction goes to early childhood education,” says Scott Cameron, the executive producer of the show. “As a global community, we need to figure out ways to really create new models to help children in need in these crisis settings.”

Read the full article about Muppets and displaced children from Syria by Adele Peters at Fast Company.