The US State Department on Tuesday confirmed that funding for the Pakistan Sesame Street Program had been terminated after allegations of fraud and abuse of aid money against the Rafi Peer Puppet Workshop were found to be credible.
State Department Deputy spokesperson Mark Toner said the Pakistan Sesame Street Program totaled $20 million and that $6.7 million has already been spent by the Rafi Peer Theater Workshop.
The project was canceled after several calls were made to an anti-fraud hotline set up by the US Agency for International Development (USAID) in Pakistan alleging misappropriation of funds. The US looked into the allegations and found them credible. A full investigation is still underway as to how and where the money was spent.
“No one is questioning, obviously, the value and positive impact of this kind of programming for children,” said Toner. “But this is about allegations of corruption.”
The revelation is likely to cause embarrassment for the multibillion-dollar US aid programme in Pakistan, which some analysts have criticized for lacking focus and not achieving results.
Meanwhile, the US-based Sesame Workshop was “dismayed” to find out that the program had been halted because of fraud allegations.
The project was a co-production between Sesame Workshop and Rafi Peer Puppet Workshop, based in Lahore.
“Sesame Workshop was surprised and dismayed to learn about the serious allegations made against Rafi Peer Theatre Workshop. Beyond what we have read in the press, we do not know the specific details of these allegations,” Sesame Workshop said in a statement.
“We hope that we’ll continue our work in Pakistan and anywhere else in the world. I think we have to go step by step here,” said Myung Kang-Huneke, executive vice president and general counsel of Sesame Workshop.
In its defence, the Rafi Peer Puppet Workshop denied the allegations, saying the US ended its participation due to a lack of funds.
“Rafi Peer is proud of its association with the project and of the quality of children’s educational television programming created within Pakistan as a result,” the group said in a statement.
The program, called Sim Sim Hamara, or “Our Sim Sim,” launched to much fanfare in December, with plans to run for a full three seasons. It featured Elmo and a cast of local Pakistani characters, including a young girl in a lead role. Other characters included Munna, a 5-year old boy who played the table drums, Baily, a donkey who loved to sing, and Haseen O Jameel, a crocodile living in a well.
In a country where one third of all young children do not attend school, the show was supposed to raise literacy, education, and tolerance. Now, its future is in jeopardy.
Rafi Peer claims it is looking for alternate sources of funding, for now leaving the colorful cast of characters with nowhere to play and no songs to sing.
Dear Elmo, I noticed! What a pathetic choice of caption for a start. Respected press,It aint elmo's fault at all! Is it ELMO'S fault that somebody messed up with the money? Respected press, You can not tag a world class character to something that puts a DENT to his brand image. Be brave enough to put apt captions that communicate, not mitigate/mutilate/twist info.
For all the generations that have witnessed Elmo the following shall hold value
ELMO is cool,
ELMO is clean.
ELMO is better
than he has ever been!
Elmo thought?
no on would notice??!
For My Elmo:
when love connects, ways become visible. Don't be dismayed, we shall get to PLAY!
"Future in Jeopardy" ….lol
Firstly, One third of all young children need electricity to power up their TV sets (if they have one).
typical dilemma of the Yankees working in Pakistan! These Yanks land in their first class seats via Dubai in Isloo, keep on schmoozing around Isloo in their 4*4s yet for all their stay, they seldom come across "the real middle class Pakistani" …. the only species as a replacement of a Pakistani they get in Isloo are these Pirzada-types, these Salman Taseer-types, these DAWN NEWS types, these FM 89 types & these Express Tribune types! All of these "liberal art" personalities always have three things in common ………. they are Bhutto's Jialas, they are confused, they are incompetent & they are corrupt to the level of selfishness!! I praise Cameron Munter as he was the first ambassador after President Lyndon Jhonson (the famous friend of Bashir, the camel guy from 1960s) who took the pain to get out of the graveyard of ideologies i.e. Islamabad & went to sofi shrines, mosques, theaters & bazars to understand the real middle class Pakistani !! Period: The real Pakistani is more liberal, more honest & more peace-loving then these US-returned harvard/yale studied full bright confused Jialas who are usually found circling around Marriot & Serena lobbies in Islamabad with zero productivity !!
Absolutely true………
We r talking about elite Khandan from Pakistan .they did not even think about kids ,before they drown their dreams that they are really enjoying this show . wow Peerzadiasssssssssssssss how much ,more u want MORE ? Greediness …………… ITS A mess…
oh lord all of you guys are pmsing i swear.
its only sad to know all this!!!
seems like a media trial so far….
no matter how good or bad peerzadas are…
one needs to see the evidence of all that is said… blaming pakistan and pakistanis is the easiest and probably the favorite thing to do at the moment, and the sad part is that we Pakistanis are the first ones to believe on any negative news that come from Pakistan…
nothing shall be believed unless we see the proof….
who knows it is a genuine case of fraud or just another political move with in the recent dark cloud between US and Pakistan
FACT: Recently USAID head Rajiv Shah was in Pakistan and decided to bring down the number of on ground projects from arnd 140 to 35.
Are all these cancelled projects corrupt then? are they all being punished? and if so why is this ridiculous paper not cashing in on their misfortune?
If any of you have ever worked with USAID you would know that each procurement, purchase and audit is monitored by them by internal and external auditing companies.
shocking how we are so eager to hate our own people.
we should be outraged that USAID has reneged on its original commitment to our kids, that a wonderful show created for our children is in jeopardy because of USAID's lack of commitment and instead we are venting all our anger on our own artists who are being hung out to dry by the US…again!
I'm glad this paper is being sued, there is not one single substantiated fact in your whole witch hunt and as for your readers they are too full of hate and anger to see any reason….also FYI…the Peerzada's have no affiliation to the bhuttos so you ignorant judgmental morons can stuff it.
Watch this. A discussion by Hasb-e-Haal on Rafi Peer Theatre Workshop. Shows how articles like the one above are a perfect example of framing organizations into false, baseless allegation which lack evidence. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z5q2ZpOII1E&fe…
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