ABSTRACT
Sesame Workshop, the nonprofit behind Sesame Street, has become the world’s largest informal educator, using media to address challenging experiences in children’s lives for 51 years. Building on the trust parents have in Sesame Street, authors responded swiftly to the pandemic, creating a global multimedia initiative – Caring for Each Other – to address the needs of children and families, model coping techniques, and provide strategies to help adults talk with children about COVID-19 and its challenges. Puppeteers around the world were sent puppets and equipment to film in makeshift home studios, often using mobile phones to record. Teams shared footage, equipment lists, and learnings across the organization. The US team further innovated with green screens for puppeteers. In many regions, broadcasters and Ministries of Education were eager for educational content as families stayed home. In partnership with the Inter-American Development Bank, a large library of Sésamo content was made available across eighteen countries throughout Latin America and the Caribbean.
