Sesame Street is trying to foster a culture of understanding worldwide using Muppets to teach nonviolence in a Mideast version of the TV show called “Shara’a Simsim.” Sesame Workshop calls this effort “Muppet diplomacy.”
With some funding from the U.S. State Department and guidance from the U.S. producers, a team developed the Sesame program into something uniquely Palestinian, complete with live-action segments filmed in the West Bank and Gaza, a set that looks like a typical Palestinian street and Muppets named Haneen and Karim.
(Part of Christiane Amanpour’s Generation Islam — special reporting about Muslim youth in the Middle East)
Continue reading at CNN.com or watch the video below…
Related Good News Network story about launch of show: Muppets Preach Peace on Mideast Sesame Street, May 2007