Yahoo TV

STORY: The Arabic version of ‘Sesame Street’ is teaching kids about mental health

The colorful characters of ‘Ahlan Simsim’ paid a visit to Dubai

to introduce audiences to the seventh season of the educational TV show

Location: Dubai, UAE

Courtesy: Sesame Workshop

[Khaled Haddad, Executive producer]

“Each season of Sesame has an educational goal and the 7th season focuses on self-identity where the children could understand exactly what they have inside them as a talent and as a way of thinking so they can respect it and they can find out the best approach towards life.”

‘Ahlan Simsim’ reaches 23 million children across the Middle East

aged between three and eight

(Scott Cameron, Head of international production, Sesame Workshop)

“When we started out, ‘Ahlan Simsim’ was designed to help children in the Syrian response region in Syria, Jordan, Lebanon and Iraq. And when we met with educational advisors here in the region we asked them what is the best way to teach them, they all said start with emotions, you have to start with helping children identify emotions and learn how to manage them so then they’re ready to learn anything. So we started off with learning about emotions and this season we’re focusing on positive self identity and self concept, so just simple things like being proud of yourself for learning something new, for working with other people, other kids.”