There’s help on Sesame Street

MEDIUM

Sesame Street has been making children smile since 1969. But the children’s programme doesn’t always deal with light-hearted themes. It also aims to make difficult topics easier for children to understand. A new show has recently been started for displaced refugee children in Syria, Jordan, Iraq and Lebanon. Three new

Muppets, called Basma, Jad and Ma’zooza, should help the children to process traumatic experiences they may have suffered.

These topics are often broken down and presented through individual feelings the children can identify with. “When looking at fear we have an episode where Basma is scared of the dark. That is a good way to talk about being afraid because so many children are scared of the dark,” Scott Cameron, executive producer at Sesame Workshop, told The Washington Post. The Arabic-language programme Ahlan Simsim — meaning “Welcome Sesame” — will be available on Youtube and on children’s TV in the region.