AN Australian pro-Palestine activist says she was arrested at gunpoint, falsely imprisoned and denied food and phone contact for 15 hours over what Israeli authorities say is a visa irregularity.
Palestinian Sesame Street broadcasting its fourth season: focus on early childhood education
22.10.09 - 09:40
Ramallah / PNN – The fourth season of the Palestinian version of Sesame Street, Shara’ Simsim, is broadcasting from Ramallah.
The series, designed to educate children on the basics of daily life, uses puppets to communicate the messages. Project Manager Layla Sayegh told PNN that 26 new episodes are being filmed this year.
Sayegh says she is coordinating with 14 schools from the city of Ramallah and some students will be part of the show.
Artist and puppeteer Fadi Al Ghol said that the writing of the show focuses on issues faced by children, education, and helps them find solutions to problems. He said that his puppet Hannen has a lot in common with children: intelligent and curious.
“There is heavy reliance on Sesame Street to educate children on the feast of life. I’m very happy to be playing my character,” Ghoul said. “It represents part of my personality as an artist.”
He continued to tell PNN, “Sesame Street is a global project located in Palestine.” He described working both in and outside of the studio and said that the music and Arabic language is a result of 13 years of collaborative efforts. “There is a change in the quality of the performance in various components. We hope that this season will be the culmination of each of the previous seasons.”
Daoud Kuttab, executive producer of the series, says that the part of the purpose of the show is to prepare young children for school. He pointed out that nearly 70 percent of Palestinian children do not attend pre-school or kindergarten. “When entering the first grade, they do not know what education is and often face many problems.”
The Ministry of Education in Ramallah, with which Shara’ Simsim is in cooperation, has asked that the program prepare children for their first year of study. Kuttab added, “Children face violence from each other when they enter school and we can say that they are violent because of the circumstances experienced in Palestine, so we try to give them some means to unload the violence trapped in their minds, positive methods.”
The target age group is being 4 and 7 years old, which Kuttab says is particularly important as the child’s personality is developing for the rest of his life.
Filming launched for the fourth season of the 1.9 million dollar project funded by USAID on the twelfth of October.
