SESAME STREET OUTREACH EDUCATIONAL MATERIALS

MEND has worked on two projects with Sesame Workshop of New York (formerly
Children’s Television Workshop) – producing educational materials for 4 – 8 year-olds
to accompany and reinforce the messages of the two Palestinian-Israeli (and
Jordanian) television series, and featuring two Palestinian Muppets Haneen and
Kareem.
The first series (1998-2000) consisted of two (evergreen) activity books, a home
video, an audio cassette, a poster, several newspaper activity pages and a
teachers’ guide to the video. They were distributed throughout Jerusalem, the West
Bank, the Gaza Strip and among Palestinians inside Israel. The main goals of this series
were self-respect, literacy, appreciation of Palestinian culture, intra-Palestinian
respect and respect for others, including Israelis.
The second series (2002-4) consisted of a story book, a poster, a home video, seven
public service announcements, stickers, newspaper advertisements and activities,
and tote bags. They also included a reprint of the second activity book from the
earlier series since it was so much in demand. The primary goal of this series was to
promote reading, partly as the television series this time was the experimental
“sesame stories” and partly because there is a need to encourage reading among
Palestinian children. The goals also included appreciation of differences and mutual
respect as core Sesame goals.
There is a serious lack of children’s materials in Palestine, and especially of high
quality materials that can be reused over and over again. Both the two series were
designed by a highly professional team that included Dr. Cairo Arafat, the Director
of the Secretariat for the Palestinian Child at the Ministry of Planning, Khalil Abu
Arafeh, cartoonist with Al-Quds newspaper and Turbo publishers with artist/designer
Taysir Masriyyeh. All the work was very closely coordinated with Sesame Workshop in
New York at every stage to ensure the educational content and the quality.
The next series will be entirely separate for Palestinians, with no cross-over or sharing
with either Israelis or Jordanians, but the overall messages of understanding and
open-mindedness will be the same. Work has already started with both the
Jordanians and the Israelis, and should be under way soon too for the Palestinians.
Mend On Sesame Street
Mend And Sesame: A World of A Project