Sesame Workshop Announces Nigerian Series

NEW YORK: Sesame Workshop, behind the long-running hit Sesame Street, is creating an original half-hour programming block called Sesame Square in Nigeria.

Sesame Square will be hosted by two puppet characters specially developed for the program: Kami, a girl Muppet who is HIV-positive, and her friend, a furry blue boy Muppet. The boy Muppet’s name will be selected by nationwide vote. From Nigeria only, fans vote via SMS text from their cell phone.

The series will air over three years on terrestrial TV and two outreach kits will later be distributed to schools and NGOs across the country. The kits will focus on literacy and healthy. Sesame Square is a co-production between Sesame Workshop and Ileke Media in Nigeria. It has been made possible by a five-year grant from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) to created the series and supporting outreach materials, as well as to conduct research to evaluate the impact.

Yemisi Ilo, Sesame Street Nigeria’s executive producer and director of business development, stated, “Sesame Square exemplifies the core of Ileke Media’s and Sesame Workshop’s shared mission to foster respect and understanding through the power of media. It is our hope that the series will make a strong impact among Nigerian children and their families, addressing relevant social issues, as well as providing them with a strong foundation of basic literacy and numeracy that will instill an interest in and lifelong love of learning.”