News

Preventative Play: Sesame Street and World Vision in Zambia

A snapshot of Christian witness in the world (as it appeared in our July/August issue).

Jon Warren / Courtesy of World Vision
Children at Chalimbana Primary School, in Chongwe ADP, Zambia, pose with Sesame Street muppet Raya. Left to right: Jeremiah Malilakufa, 10, boy; Memory Nkoloma, 11, girl; and Ngonga Mukange, 9, girl; all not sponsored.

STORY: Having Fun with a Muppet, by Dr Greg Allgood, WVUS

Raya is one of the newest Sesame Street Muppets. She’s a 6 year-old green girl that knows a lot about clean water, sanitation, and hygiene. What a coincidence that she was born on World Water Day! Raya is getting some help from her friend Elmo.

Sesame Street is the largest informal educator of children in the world and has characters that help address important social causes including HIV and obesity.

World Vision believes that children can be powerful agents of positive change in communities and because of this, a critical part of World Vision water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) programs in the developing world includes outreach to schools. World Vision reaches an amazing 4 new schools every day with clean water, sanitation, and hygiene. World Vision has learned that children can not only receive important messages about healthy habits but they can also deliver these messages effectively to their brothers, sisters, and parents. By doing this, they can dramatically change the health of a community. And, importantly, kids respond best when they’re having fun while they learn.

Sesame Street and World Vision have partnered to leverage each other’s strengths to help end the global water, sanitation, and hygiene crisis.

The educational activities are focused on after school WASH clubs. The curriculum has been developed using the expertise of both Sesame Street and World Vision. By working with Zambian educational experts the curriculum can be adapted to the local context.

The result is a “WASH-Up kit” that can be provided to a school. It includes two floor mats that include games to teach the proper behaviors. One mat uses a slide and ladder game, the other is like Tw

ZAMBIA: About 1,000 children die daily from diseases caused by dirty water and inadequate sanitation. To reduce this, World Vision teamed up with Sesame Street to make a new Muppet. Raya, a “six-year-old green girl” focused on WASH (water/sanitation/hygiene), joins special Muppets created for HIV, obesity, and other social issues. So far, Raya has taught 75 schools in Zambia. World Vision, which spends about $100 million on WASH annually, plans to expand Raya's hygiene curriculum into Ghana and other parts of Africa.

Also in this issue

The CT archives are a rich treasure of biblical wisdom and insight from our past. Some things we would say differently today, and some stances we've changed. But overall, we're amazed at how relevant so much of this content is. We trust that you'll find it a helpful resource.

Cover Story

CT Makers: 20 of the Most Creative Christians We Know

Editorial

Andy Crouch: Stop Engaging 'The Culture,' Because It Doesn't Exist

Kulandei Francis

New & Noteworthy Books

My Top 5 Books on Faith and Football

Review

D. L. Mayfield: ‘What If I Made Everything Worse?'

Review

Where the White Working Class Went Wrong

Ajith Fernando: How Church Leaders Can Serve God's Family Without Neglecting Their Own

Manny Pacquiao, Championship Boxer, Has a New Opponent: Philippine Poverty

Testimony

Professional Soccer Was My God

Creating for Good

Catalina Bellizzi

Health Is About Way More Than Weight

Why Christians Should End Their Search for 'Relevance'

Porn Is More Criticized and More Popular Than Ever

Excerpt

Why Every Christian Should Be Ambitious

Let Deuteronomy Awaken Your Inner Child

Why Married Sex Is Social Justice

Reply All

How Neuroscience—and the Bible—Explain Shame

The Gift of My Anxiety

Myquillyn Smith

News

Who Gets to Count That Convert?

News

NGO No-Go: More Countries Make Christian Charity Harder to Give and Receive

News

Gleanings: July/August 2016

Chris and Will Haughey

Andrew Peterson

Lara Casey

Megan White Mukuria

Jeremy Cowart

Eric Wowoh

Christine Moseley

News

Releasing God's Word: Do Copyrights Help or Hurt Bible Translation?

Ryan and Amy Green

David Bailey

Pete Docter

Enoch Ho

Rebecca Bradley

Nury Vittachi

Jon Batiste

Sajan George

Alex Medina

Becca Stevens

View issue

Our Latest

Wire Story

Top ACNA Leader Faces Sexual Harassment Allegations

Following a string of scandals, the accusations against Archbishop Steve Wood come amid plans for the denomination to overhaul its abuse response.

The Russell Moore Show

 Listener Question: Should Communion Be Open to All Believers?

Russell takes a listener’s question about church membership and the Communion table.

Anti-Fragile Faith in Chaotic Times

Slow Theology highlights how a long obedience in the same direction grows.

News

Christian Colleges Object to Trump ‘Overreach’ on Higher Ed

The administration’s compact with universities would freeze tuition for five years and cap the number of international students, among other measures.

Will There Ever Be Peace in the Middle East?

An explainer on sectarianism, and how it keeps the region divided.

The Bulletin

Young Republican Texts, Anglican Split, and George Santos Released

Controversial Republican texts, Anglican Communion splits, and George Santos’s sentence is commuted.

Review

Do Evangelical Political Errors Rise to the Level of Heresy?

A Lutheran pastor identifies five false teachings that threaten to corrupt the church’s public witness.

Apple PodcastsDown ArrowDown ArrowDown Arrowarrow_left_altLeft ArrowLeft ArrowRight ArrowRight ArrowRight Arrowarrow_up_altUp ArrowUp ArrowAvailable at Amazoncaret-downCloseCloseEmailEmailExpandExpandExternalExternalFacebookfacebook-squareGiftGiftGooglegoogleGoogle KeephamburgerInstagraminstagram-squareLinkLinklinkedin-squareListenListenListenChristianity TodayCT Creative Studio Logologo_orgMegaphoneMenuMenupausePinterestPlayPlayPocketPodcastRSSRSSSaveSaveSaveSearchSearchsearchSpotifyStitcherTelegramTable of ContentsTable of Contentstwitter-squareWhatsAppXYouTubeYouTube