''Hikayat Simsim'' ( ar, حكايات سمسم) is the

Jordan Jordan ( ar, الأردن; tr. ' ), officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan,; tr. ' is a country in Western Asia. It is situated at the crossroads of Asia, Africa, and Europe, within the Levant region, on the East Bank of the Jordan Rive ...

ian co-production of ''

Sesame Street ''Sesame Street'' is an American educational children's television series that combines live-action, sketch comedy, animation and puppetry. It is produced by Sesame Workshop (known as the Children's Television Workshop until June 2000) a ...

,'' which began airing in 2003. It is co-produced by

Sesame Workshop Sesame Workshop (SW), originally known as the Children's Television Workshop (CTW), is an American nonprofit organization that has been responsible for the production of several educational children's programs—including its first and best-know ...

an
Jordan Pioneers
, an

Amman Amman (; ar, عَمَّان, ' ; Ammonite language, Ammonite: 𐤓𐤁𐤕 𐤏𐤌𐤍 ''Rabat ʻAmān'') is the capital and largest city of Jordan, and the country's economic, political, and cultural center. With a population of 4,061,150 a ...

-based company.

History

Twenty-six episodes of Hikayat Simsim were initially produced, which began airing in Jordan in October 2003 on Jordan Television, Jordan's public television station. A second season was in production by late 2005 and debuted in January 2007, later followed by a third and fourth season. A community outreach initiative supplemented the television series. The project is funded in large part by project partners, including the United States Agency for International Development (

USAID The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) is an independent agency of the U.S. federal government that is primarily responsible for administering civilian foreign aid and development assistance. With a budget of over $27 bi ...

), the Bank of Jordan, and ArtVenture.

Content

The program was created, written, and produced by local educators and television professionals. The show combined segments featuring Muppet characters with animation and live action pieces, which introduced Jordanian children to positive images of themselves and others.

Messaging

''Hikayat Simsim'' focuses on subjects such as

literacy Literacy in its broadest sense describes "particular ways of thinking about and doing reading and writing" with the purpose of understanding or expressing thoughts or ideas in written form in some specific context of use. In other words, huma ...

numeracy Numeracy is the ability to understand, reason with, and to apply simple numerical concepts. The charity National Numeracy states: "Numeracy means understanding how mathematics is used in the real world and being able to apply it to make the bes ...

, health and hygiene, national identity, needs of Iraqi refugee children, mutual respect, and tolerance. In 2010 the production began incorporating messaging regarding

road safety Road traffic safety refers to the methods and measures used to prevent road users from being killed or seriously injured. Typical road users include pedestrians, cyclists, motorists, vehicle passengers, horse riders, and passengers of on-road ...

after joining the Global Road Safety Partnership.

Characters

The main

Muppet The Muppets are an American ensemble cast of puppet characters known for an surreal humor, absurdist, burlesque, and self-referential humor, self-referential style of Variety show, variety-sketch comedy. Created by Jim Henson in 1955, they are ...

characters in the Jordanian production are Juljul and Tonton. Tonton is a 4-year-old girl who loves

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

and furthers the show's message of girls' empowerment, while Juljul teaches children about computer literacy. Issa Sweidan played the production's grandfather figure, Jiddo Simsim.

In other media

Tonton was used in early pitches for ''

Ahlan Simsim ''Ahlan Simsim'' (Arabic: أهلا سمسم),translating to "Welcome Sesame", is an Arabic language co-production of ''Sesame Street'' that premiered on February 2, 2020, on MBC 3. The show is the spiritual successor to Iftah Ya Simsim, a Kuwait ...

'' and made a special appearance in one episode of the show. She was also used for outreach programs for Syrian refugees starting in 2016.

External links

Official Facebook page

References

{{Sesame Street international 2000s Jordanian television series 2003 Jordanian television series debuts Jordanian children's television series Sesame Street international co-productions