Haseen-o-Jameel Magarmuch caused many ripples of laughter among children recently at the Children’s Literature Festival, where the Rafi Peer Theatre Group set up a muppet show of Sim Sim Hamara.
This forever young male crocodile is gentle, funny and a highly narcissistic creature, constantly talking to his companion “Aaina” who is herself a character and plays both Haseen’s guide along with being a visual transport into other places and events during the show. The crocodile was seen in this last show to be contemplating whether he should go to school or not.
But for those children who have seen Sesame Street and even adults who have seen the American show when they were children, a more recognisable character would be three-year-old Elmo, a little red monster, as curious as a cat, and ready to question anything that came his way. He is loveable, friendly and funny.
Sim Sim Hamara is an official Urdu adaptation of American Sesame Street. The project, funded by the USAID, was undertaken by the Peerzada clan through the Rafi Peer Group, since they are known best for their mastery in puppet making and puppet theatre.
This programme is screened every Saturday exclusively on Pakistan Television (PTV) and aims to focus on educating a child during his or her initial years through entertainment.
PTV aims to address the challenges of drop out rates, education for girls and high quality education. It also provides information through entertainment methods, a technique which is immensely important for a child but which is not employed in Pakistan. This is through the partnership of Sesame Workshop and Rafi Peer Theater Group.
Focus on Education: An integral element of the PTV’s production process is the solicitation of advice from educational experts over the course of the project’s development.
A select group of educational specialists from the government and non-government sectors were invited to participate in a series of sessions and offer their ideas based on their expertise on childhood education and related fields.
The Pakistan Children’s TV team is working with the PBC and Riral Support Programs Network in the next phase of the project.
Key Learning Areas:
Language and literacy: focus on developing children’s listening, speaking, reading and writing skills, and impress upon children that learning is an enjoyable and life long experience.
Mathematics, Science and Cognition: highlight the importance of acquiring scientific skills and boosting the cognitive development of the child.
learning basic operations, numbers, life sciences, scientific processes, problem solving, critical thinking, and analytical skills. They also focus on the children may think about objects around them by fostering their ability to sort and classify objects and identify patterns in things around them.
Health, hygiene, and nutrition: development of children’s knowledge of their body, its parts, functions and capabilities and create awareness about health nutrition and hygiene and includes a special focus on malaria and polio.
Child Family and Social Relations: developing a child’s social skills, encouraging him or her to recognize and appreciate the community.
Understanding respect and diversity: Focus on helping children recognize that basic human needs transcend differences. Developing them to become open minded and thoughtful about other cultures, religions, gender, disabilities and socio-economic standards.
Art, culture and social studies: encourage the child to be proud of their nationality, culture, language, and traditions. They are encouraged to appreciate arts in all forms.
Some of the characters who are to appear during the show include Rani, a six year old school going girl, who lives with a passion for natural sciences, and reading, five year old Munna, a boy who loves math and numbers and wants to be a pilot, Baily, an eight year old donkey, who is hardworking with aspirations of becoming a singer one day, and Baji who is a typical traditional Pakistani woman who loves cooking, and healthy living.