Ahlan Simsim

Ahlan Simsim (Arabic: أهلا سمسم, lit. 'Welcome Sesame')^[1] is an Arabic language co-production of Sesame Street that premiered on 2 February 2020 on MBC 3.^[2][3] The show is the spiritual successor to Iftah Ya Simsim, a Kuwaiti production that ran from 1979 to 1990 and aired in multiple Arabic-speaking countries.^[3] The show also shares a name and its characters with an initiative to provide education for displaced Syrian children.^[1][4]

Ahlan Simsim
أهلا سمسم
Original languages	Arabic, Kurdish
No. of seasons	7
No. of episodes	156
Production
Producers	Sesame Workshop, International Rescue Committee
Running time	25-26 minutes
Production company	Sesame Workshop
Original release
Network	MBC3
Release	2 February 2020 (2020-02-02) – present

Production

The series was first announced in 2016.^[5] In 2017 the show received a $100 million grant from the MacArthur Foundation.^[6]

Outreach programs were first launched in 2018.^[7]

The first season debuted in February 2020. Season three premiered on February 28, 2021, and season four in fall 2021.^[8][9]

The series is funded by the MacArthur Foundation grant^[6] and by the LEGO Foundation.^[10] USAID also provided a grant of $20 million in July 2021 to fund the program.^{[11][12][13][14]} The series is produced in collaboration with Sesame Workshop and the International Rescue Committee.^[1][3] As of 2022, the managing director of Ahlan Simsim at Sesame Workshop is Rene Celaya.^[15] Syrian, Lebanese, Jordanian, and Iraqi children are the target audience, with a special focus on displaced Syrian children.^[1]

The show is produced in Amman, Jordan.^[16][17]

Messaging

The first season is designed to teach "the emotional ABCs": how to identify and manage emotions.^[18][19][20] Emotions covered in the first season were anger, anxiety, compassion, fear, frustration, determination, jealousy, loneliness, and sadness.^[21] Emotion management strategies taught in the show include "Stop, Notice, Think", counting to five, breathing, making plans, and asking adults for help.^{[5][8][20][21]}

The second season, in addition to continuing emotional education, focused on helping children cope with the COVID-19 pandemic.^[22] The third season more broadly looks at "life challenges", social skills, and conflict resolution.^[9][23] The fourth season looked at perseverance, optimism, and hope.^[23] The fifth season focused on kindness to one's self and others.^[2]

Characters

Human cast members include Salma (played by Mariam Amer),^[24] who helps Basma and Jad in the show's DIY segment,^[9] Hadi (played by Rami Delshad),^[24] who plays guitar,^[25] and Teta Noor, Hadi's mother. Both Hadi and Teta Noor teach the younger characters how to manage their emotions.^[20][25]

Solely animated characters include Abu'l Fihim (played by Jawad Al Shakarji),^[24] who lives on a mural in the neighborhood, birds Bulbul, Hasoon, and Reesheh, and a trio of Dabke dancers.^[26]

The series debuted with three original Muppet characters: Basma, Jad, and Ma'zooza.^[27] Basma (played by Hind Jaal)^[25] is a purple almost six-year-old monster who is enthusiastic about new things and love to perform.^[19][27] Jad (played by Nowar Mahayri)^[24] is a yellow almost six-year-old monster who loves art and is new to the neighborhood.^[19][27] Ma'zooza (played by Fatimah Amayreh)^[24] is a baby goat who loves circles and is taught lessons by Basma and Jad.^[19][27][17] Ma'zooza was created to show children that they can be leaders and teachers themselves.^[17]

For the fifth season in 2022, the program introduced Ameera, a green eight-year-old girl who loves science and uses a wheelchair and crutches due to a spinal cord injury.^[2][28] Ameera uses a boxy, more outdated wheelchair to reflect the fact that displaced children in the region are often unable to access new mobility aids.^[29]

The series also includes localized versions of Gargur (played by Natheer Khawaldeh), Kaaki, and Elmo from Iftah Ya Simsim.^[2]

Guests on the show have included Raya Abirached.^[30][31]

Episodes

Episodes air primarily in Levantine Arabic and include Iraqi, Jordanian, Lebanese, and Syrian dialects.^[21] Modern Standard Arabic is used in some segments.^[21] Some episodes have been translated into Kurdish.^[17][32] The first half of each episode features Basma and Jad dealing with a problem or experience. The second half features songs, games, and celebrity guests.^[33] Season 2 introduced number and word of the day segments.^[34] Season 3 introduces a do-it-yourself segment.^[9]

As of 2022 the show has six seasons, with each having 26 episodes.^[22][24] Each episode runs about 25–26 minutes.^[35]

In 2020 Sesame Workshop released four short public service announcements, featuring the show's muppet characters, which focused on health and hygiene.^[36] The show also produced a half-hour special called "Ahlan Simsim: Friends Time", which was aimed toward supporting Middle Eastern families during the COVID-19 pandemic.^[25][37] That same year, Basma and Jad also appeared in "Elmo's World News", a special aired internationally that focused on the pandemic and coping skills for children.^[38][39]

Reception and impact

According to the MacArthur Foundation, 5.2 million children (from Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria) viewed seasons 1 and 2, and 12 million viewers in the wider MENA region had seen the show by the end of season 3's initial airing.^[8] In 2022, an estimated 23 million children saw the show.^[40]

One 2022 study reported that children who watched the show had increased emotional regulation and larger emotional vocabularies.^[21] Parents also reported that they learned new words or emotional regulation strategies from the show as well.^[21] A 2023 study found that Jordanian children who had been exposed to the show at school every day for three months showed improvements in identifying and regulating emotions.^[41]

Awards

The program received the Teachers' Choice Award in November 2020 from the Chicago International Children's Film Festival.^[10]

In 2021 the program was nominated in the Kids: Factual & Entertainment category for the International Emmy Kids Awards, marking the time a Jordanian program had received a nomination for the award.^[42]

In 2022 Ahlan Simsim was nominated for Best Mixed-Media Series at the Kidscreen Awards.^[43]

Outreach programs

Ahlan Simsim's outreach programs to provide education to displaced Syrian children were launched in late 2018 in collaboration with the International Rescue Committee.^[1][3] Programs and materials were created through collaboration with displaced families and communities from August to November 2018.^[44]

These programs include year-long preschool classes for displaced children, parenting sessions, and materials for care providers.^[5][16][17] In less stable regions, the IRC hosts informal play and learning sessions in community centers.^[23] The programs also involve direct services in which early childhood development facilitators meet directly with children and caregivers in their homes.^[5] As of 2022, the regional project director for the programs is Marianne Stone.^[15]

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the initiative focused more on sharing messaging through text messages.^[23]

The programs are independently evaluated by NYU Global TIES for Children.^[23][45] A June 2023 report from the group revealed that a combined in-person and remote 11-week program affected children'slanguage, numeracy, and social-emotional development on par with what we usually expect as effects of a full year of preschool".^[40][41] Evaluation of an audio-only program for caregivers of young children found it did not improve learning, but did decrease depressive symptoms in caregivers.^[41]