BELIZE CITY, Mon. Mar. 15, 2021– Today, the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), Sesame Workshop and Belize’s Ministry of Culture, Education, Science and Technology (MoCEST) have made arrangements to enhance the preschool curriculum with award-winning educational cartoon programs from the non-profit organization, Sesame Workshop.
Ramiro López Ghio, IDB’s Country Representative for Belize, says: “In partnership with the Ministry of Education, Culture, Science and Technology, the IDB is delighted to make Sesame Street available to families of Belize, which is some of the world’s most evidence-based learning programs for young children.”
With the IDB’s funding, Sesame Workshop is scheduled to provide more than a 100 sessions of child-friendly content, including the well-acclaimed Elmo’s World, Cookie’s Crumby Pictures and four seasons of Sésamo, supplemented by new and original animations and songs of Sesame Workshop’s Caring For Each Other initiative.
This initiative is designed to assist kids and families alike during the pandemic. The content to be broadcasted has a proven track record of improving both cognitive and socio-emotional development of young children. It is recommended that children view programs with a loved one to foster enduring parent-child relationships and give rise to greater interaction.
Brenda Campos, Sesame Workshop’s Director of Social Impact, Latin America, explains that Sesame Street is produced with a whole-child curriculum framework, which intends to foster cognitive, socio-emotional and physical development. She said, “The alliance with the IDB gives us the opportunity to bring engaging educational content to Belize, to support the efforts of the Ministry of Education to enrich home learning experiences, and to provide children and their families with key messages to maintain their physical and mental health during this time.”
The broadcast will be available to Belizeans starting June in both English and Spanish. The main distributors are Channel 7 (English), Love FM (English) and Estereo Amor (Spanish). Audiences can further participate through content released on Whatsapp.
“Belize’s Ministry of Education, Culture, Science and Technology is truly excited to partner with the IDB and Sesame Workshop to deliver world-class pre-school educational content to our beautiful and amazing little ones here in Belize.”, says Hon. Fonseca. “The COVID-19 pandemic has had a devastating impact on our education system, and our young children who thrive on interaction and stimulation, have been particularly disadvantaged. We deeply appreciate the efforts of the IDB and Sesame Workshop to bring this initiative to Belize. We are certain that it will have a very positive impact on the social, emotional, and cognitive development of our young children,” he said.