LEGO Foundation gives Sesame Workshop $100 million to help refugee kids
Since 2015, Sesame Workshop and LEGO Foundation have worked together in India, Mexico, and South Africa to give children in need the opportunity to learn through play. Now, for the first time, they're teaming up to address the specific needs of children in crisis settings.
On Wednesday, the LEGO Foundation announced it would award Sesame Workshop a $100 million grant over a five-year period to support children affected by the Rohingya and Syrian refugee crises. Sesame Workshop will use these funds to provide play-based learning opportunities through mass media programming and direct services, which include a play-based curriculum and safe spaces for children to play. Sesame videos, storybooks, games, and other materials will feature your favorite characters, as well as new characters.
The LEGO Foundation was inspired to make the grant after the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation awarded Sesame Workshop and the International Rescue Committee (IRC) $100 million last December to educate children displaced in the Middle East.
"We were really impressed, first of all, because we feel like this issue needs a lot more attention," says Sarah Bouchie, the head of learning through play in early childhood programme at LEGO Foundation. "Children in humanitarian settings are not getting the stimulation, growth, support, and play-based learning that we feel they really need."
A report by the UN Refugee Agency found that 68.5 million people were displaced worldwide in 2017. Children below 18 years of age made up about half of the refugee population.
Sherrie Westin, the president of global impact and philanthropy for Sesame Workshop, points to research showing children need play in order to learn and grow. That can mean building empathy or imagination, or learning about cause and effect by knocking down a toy tower.
Westin says such "joyful" learning is critical for a child's brain development, especially during their first five years of life, which is why Sesame Workshop will work with Syrian refugees from 0 to 8 years old, and Rohingya refugees 0 to 6 years old in Bangladesh. Westin says these young refugees, who often endure conflict, neglect, and violence, are at greatest risk for the detrimental effects of trauma, which can have lifetime consequences. Adverse effects include trouble managing and expressing emotions and difficulty regulating impulses.
Sesame Workshop plans to test a variety of approaches to learn the most effective ways to reach young children in crisis. Westin says that Sesame's partnership with IRC is important because it combines mass media and direct intervention. Sesame Street provides broadcast and educational materials, such as storybooks, puzzles, and video featuring the Muppets of Sesame Street, while the IRC offers direct services like home visits.
Westin says that it's important to tailor materials and models to the region and children's needs. For example, the majority of Syrian refugee children are in host communities, not camps. As a result, Sesame Workshop will rely on home visits to reach the most vulnerable children and their caregivers. The organization is also in the process of developing an all-new Arabic production of Sesame Street featuring a character who leaves their home and becomes best friends with another character from the region. The intention is to reflect story lines to which refugee children can relate. In addition to Syrian refugee children, Sesame Workshop hopes to reach non-refugee children in Jordan, Iraq, and Lebanon.
"It’s really important that we’re reaching refugee children as well as their new neighbors because we’re modeling respect, understanding, and inclusion," says Westin.
In Bangladesh, the majority of Rohingya refugee children are in camps and have less access to traditional and mobile media. Sesame Workshop will focus on learning materials that cater to the needs of refugee children and direct services. BRAC, an international organization based in Bangladesh that aims to end poverty, has been working with the LEGO Foundation since 2015. It is now partnering up with Sesame Workshop to offer programs that will help nearly 1 million children learn through play. Sesame Workshop is also looking to provide more non-verbal, animated content to reach as many children as possible.
To test how effective these strategies are, the Sesame Workshop has partnered with a research center at New York University. Westin says they are looking to measure increased engagement between parents and children, developmental progress, and improved verbal communication. Sesame Workshop plans to share its successes and mistakes with the larger humanitarian community so that everyone can learn.
"Part of the hope is that just as MacArthur inspired LEGO ... this will inspire others to invest in early childhood in refugee settings so that we can really transform humanitarian response," says Westin. "The hope is that this will be sustainable and expansive."
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