From PCT now comes Sim Sim Hamara, an educational and capacity building series for children. This Pakistani adaptation of Sesame Street has been created by RPTW in collaboration with the Sesame Workshop, New York, and funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). The project is the outcome of extensive research that spanned over a year.
Faizan Pirzada spoke comprehensively about the project to Images on Sunday. “Before I share with you the background of the entire thing let me say that PCT is the hope of those Pakistani children who for some reason or other cannot attend school. It is aimed at children between the ages of four to nine years of age which is a very critical age for learning.”
He elaborated that they wanted to design the curriculum of the project following the national education policy. “We held workshops in all of the provinces in Pakistan and held a seminar to gather educational advisors from various fields to provide direction for the educational framework for the PCT’s project. The participants of the seminar included representatives from both regional and federal government entities, academicians, performing artistes, civil society members working with children, representatives from the Sesame Workshop, USAID and the Federal Education Secretary. The discussions and input of the advisors helped form the fundamental framework, which the PCT and Sesame Workshop teams used to establish a Statement of Educational Objectives for the project.”
Faizaan added that the programme has been divided into two phases and is a four-year project. The budget for the first phase is $10 million. “In phase one, 72 episodes of Sim Sim Hamara will be broadcast nationally in Urdu followed by 13 episodes broadcasted in the four major regional languages — Punjabi, Pushto, Balochi and Sindhi.
“The second phase will see the same number of episodes mentioned above in Urdu and the four major regional languages respectively broadcast on across the country on radio. There will be an outreach programme as well in which live puppet shows will be held especially in emergency areas such flood or earthquake affected areas. The show will travel across the country, as children of different villages will be shown episodes of Sim Sim Hamra on a portable fixed television set fixed inside a large vehicle. Members of staff will also travel and show the show on their laptops. A website will also be launched where episodes of the show are going to be available for view,” said Faizaan.
The show’s locally developed puppet stars include Rani, a six-year-old school girl with a keen interest in natural sciences and a love of reading; Munna a five year old boy with big dreams and a flair for math and numbers; Baily a fluffy, hardworking donkey who aspires to be a pop star; Baji, a colourful, spirited woman with a passion for food, family, fun and tradition and Haseen-o-Jameel, a crocodile who has a wonderful way with words, rhymes and songs.
The project has a fully-equipped studio, a permanent set, a separate sound studio and separate puppet, animation, set design and post production department as well. The staff of over 200 has been employed from various parts of the country.
Sadaan Pirzada, the Director of Production, said, “It’s a great show. Never in the past has such a concentrated effort been made on any children project.”
Imran Pirzada heads the writing department. “This is a project for preschoolers. I have a team of five writers including myself. It was a tough task because very little had been written for children in the past but we thoroughly enjoyed working on it. I hope the children of this country will not only like it but also would benefit from it. The show will promote life values and skills, healthy habits, respect, love and understanding,” he said.
One of the members of the writing team is Tasneem Pirzada. “Being a grown up person writing for children is perhaps a difficult proposition however we are trying our best and enjoying our work. Gender equity, celebrating diversity, self esteem and self worth, emergency preparedness, and the joy of learning are some of the topics we are writing on,” she added.
