The U.S Agency for International Development and President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief are helping Nigeria produce and broadcast its own version of the popular U.S. educational television series, Sesame Street, in a bid to help prevent malaria and raise HIV/AIDS awareness in the African country.
Sesame Square, as it is known in Nigeria, stays true to the original series’ goal of helping pre-schoolers learn numbers and letters while having fun. But it also incorporates messages on the importance and proper use of bed nets and features a resilient, happy and affectionate HIV-positive character, which producers say could erase stereotypes against people living with HIV and AIDS, Agence France-Presse reports.
USAID and PEPFAR are funding at least 20 other international versions of Sesame Street that are now being shown in more than 120 other countries, including Pakistan.
>> Pakistan Gets to ‘Sesame Street’ Through $20M USAID Funding
