D I S P A T C H E S

Introducing the Letters H-I-V

The Muppet characters on Takalani Sesame (South Africa’s version of children’s television show Sesame Street) are welcoming a new friend to the neighborhood. Kami, a furry yellow Muppet wearing a snazzy green vest, is like many familiar Muppet characters: friendly, loveable, and imbued with a 5-year-old’s view of the world. She also happens to be HIV-positive.

Kami’s debut is just one example of the innovative programming that the non-profit educational organization Sesame Workshop (formerly Children’s Television Workshop) has created in response to children’s needs worldwide. In South Africa, this means confronting issues related to HIV, particularly the stigma attached to HIV-positive children, in a way that 3- to 7-year-olds can understand. The name Kami means acceptance in the Tswana language.

Dr. Charlotte Frances Cole, Sesame Workshop’s vice president for education and research, discussed her work and Takalani Sesame’s new character in a recent interview with PopPolitics.

Q. What do you do in your present position?

I oversee the educational content and research activities on our international co-productions and on our new show projects. We help develop curricula, identifying and meeting with educational advisors, reviewing scripts and designing formative research. We also support the development of ancillary educational materials (such as activity books, educational posters, etc.) that may also be part of a given project.

In the course of the work, I interface with our funders, government and non-government partners and others involved in the macro-level functioning of the projects. A lot of what I do involves making and maintaining connections with educators, government representatives and production team members.

How does Sesame Workshop make its decisions to engage certain socio-political issues?

Sesame Workshop works with local child development experts and educators in identifying topics that are most relevant to children in-country. With extensive summative and formative research, we work to ensure that the lessons are age-appropriate.

For example, in South Africa, the Ministry of Education (our partner in the project) and local educational advisors to the project have identified HIV/AIDS education as a critical need for all South Africans. UNAIDS reports that approximately one in nine South Africans is infected with the virus, and the number of people who are HIV positive or who have AIDS is growing at an alarming rate. There is also an increasing number of children who have lost at least one parent to the disease. Furthermore, individuals with HIV/AIDS face discrimination and stigma.

Taken together, these factors highlight the seriousness of the pandemic and the need for concerted educational efforts focusing on HIV/AIDS. Educational specialists believe that Takalani Sesame will provide an effective educational platform for extending age-appropriate messages about the disease. Our material will be oriented toward helping children better understand the disease and to reduce the stigma associated with having HIV/AIDS and promote the humanization of those infected or affected.

How has the announcement of an HIV-positive character on Takalani Sesame been received by South African viewers?

While we are not yet on air — the second season launches on SABC on Sept. 30 –we’ve received mostly positive support. Sesame Street, and the local versions of the series, have always addressed children’s affective development as well as their cognitive development. That means that while the show emphasizes letters, numbers, shapes and colors, it also addresses difficult issues and life experiences that children face. We work with child development experts to ensure that lessons are age-appropriate.

That character caused a bit of controversy here in the United States, which seems surprising, given that the South African producers hadn’t planned to address the means of transmitting HIV, other than to indicate that the character had received it from a blood transfusion or through childbirth. What do you make of the resistance to such a character? How do you hope the characters on Takalani Street and Sesame Stories will function for children viewing the shows?

Dealing with a preschooler’s real life experience in a local context, responsibly and sensitively, does not impose politics, and it doesn’t replace the values children learn from parents and caring adults. But the media have tremendous reach and potential, and Sesame Workshop is committed to using it to help respond to a catastrophic situation.

Here in the U.S., and in 140 countries around the world, millions have supported our educational approach for over 33 years. We are confident that parents and caregivers, and especially kids, will continue to do so here and in South Africa, Israel, the Palestinian territories and Jordan.

– Alana Kumbier

Related Sites
Listen to an interview with Dr. Charlotte Frances Cole from NPR’s All Things Considered. 
From PopPolitics, John P. Murray, a professor of developmental psychology and an expert on children’s television programming, discusses the introduction of an HIV-positive Muppet and television’s impact on children.
Some Republican lawmakers insisted an HIV-positive Muppet should not join the American version of Sesame Street. 
From the Center for Disease Control, here’s information about the spread of AIDS in the United States (through June 2001). The Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS can be found here.