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Yonatan, 8, with older brother Dabmawi, 16. The TV series helped them cope with the grief of losing both parents. |
When his mother died, Yonatan became an orphan at age 5. Too young to remember his father's death years before, Yonatan, now 8, recalls his mother's death as if happened yesterday. "He always remembers her, tells stories about her and cries," says 16-year-old Dagmawi, Yonatan's older half-brother, also an orphan.
Yonatan's story is not uncommon in Ethiopia, a country in sub-Saharan Africa hit hard by the AIDS crisis. It is home to 4 million orphans, nearly a quarter of whom have lost one or both of their parents to AIDS.
"The life of an orphan in Ethiopia is very difficult, said Martha Yehuala, a staff member of Save the Children's Ethiopia office. "Children feel lonely and easily lose their confidence. There are few outlets for them to share their feelings, needs and wishes. So, they keep quiet instead of sharing their feelings and laughing."
But a giraffe and a turtle are now helping these children cope with their grief, while teaching other young children in Ethiopia valuable lessons about caring for and supporting orphans and children made vulnerable by AIDS around them.
It's all part of a special four-part series of a popular children's television show "Tsehai Loves Learning," produced by Whiz Kids Workshop in partnership with Save the Children and funded by the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) through USAID.
PEPFAR, enacted in 2003, provides for $15 billion over five years for prevention and treatment programs for HIV/AIDS, including programs to help children orphaned or made vulnerable by AIDS. The legislation is up for renewal early next year.
Save the Children approached WhizKids Workshop with the concept for the series as a way to help children understand the sensitive issues facing orphans and children affected by AIDS, and their communities.
"We felt right away that for the majority of children watching, they will need to have the compassion and commitment to help other children cope with loss and fight stigma and discrimination," said Shane Etzenhouser, co-founder of the show, in an email. "So, we wanted to introduce a new character named Tsinate that was coping with the loss of her parents, and the children and viewers help our main character Tsehai in supporting this orphaned child."
The first episode opens with Tsehai, a yellow giraffe puppet, being told by her mother to be kind to Tsinat because she is sad. Tsehai goes to visit Tsinat, a salmon-colored turtle puppet, to find out why she is sad. The friends play a game about how to express feelings by smiling, crying, growling and laughing. Children watching the show are asked to play along and tell how they would show kindness to a sad friend.
Tsinat reveals to Tsehai that she is sad because her mother got sick and died. (Adults and older children read later during the show's credits that Tsinat's mother died of AIDS.) Tsehai shares her own story of loss. Her cherished pet butterfly flew away one day. Together, the endearing characters lead children on a journey by using their imagination. They climb aboard Tsehai's butterfly to visit Tsinat's mom in the clouds, where she tells her mother she misses her and says good-bye. Afterward, the pair drop slowly back down to earth in raindrops.
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Beza, 6, with her baby brother, says sharing your toys can help a sad friend. |
"That was emotional for me," says Dagmawi, who watched the show with his younger brother. "Not to exaggerate, but tears came up. But it gave me the idea that whenever I'm sad about my mom, I can imagine that I'm talking to her and can tell her that I'm doing ok."
Save the Children helped organize viewings of the first show with community partners throughout the country. "The children reacted very positively," said Yehuala, who arranged a viewing with 80 children in a poor neighborhood in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia's capital. "One of the little girls, just 7 years old, told me after the show, "I want to be like Tsehai so that I can help my friend whose mother just died.'"
The second show encourages children to help their friends go to pre-school, where they can learn and play. Another episode promotes healthy eating and staying active. So, it is only fitting that Ethiopian Olympic gold medalist, Haile Gebreselassie, makes a star appearance.
Gebreselassie, whose children encouraged him to participate in the series, said "Ethiopia should be known for its famous runners, history and food, not the number of children orphaned by AIDS."
The final episode covers discrimination and stigmatization of orphans by other children and their community. The issue is told through a clever story line where Tsinat is snubbed by others who try to exclude her from being in a race because she's a turtle and too slow.
The message of inclusion is not lost on young children who saw the show. For Shizemen, a cheerful 6-year-old girl with a bright smile, it was unfair to ignore Tsinat. "We have to be friends with everyone," Shizemen says while playing on a swing outside of her classroom at school in early November. "If you leave one person out, it's not nice."
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Shizemen, 6, says you can be a good friend by asking "what makes you sad?" |
But, it's not just children who connect with Tsinat and her situation.
"We were shocked by the number of adults who told us they cried when watching the episode where Tsinat is coping with the loss of her mother," said Etzenhouser. "These adults see children in much worse situations on a daily basis, so we didn't know if watching a turtle sock puppet in a fictional setting would really touch them. He added, "But it seemed to on a much deeper level than we expected."
All four episodes of the series aired nationally several times between September and early November, reaching 2,5 million children living in urban and semi-urban settings of Ethiopia. Now, Save the Children and Whiz Kids Workshop hope to raise funds to take the show on the road so that children and families living in remote and rural areas of the country without access to televisions or electricity can see it.
The show has helped Yonatan begin to cope with his grief. His brother Dagmawi says, “Ever since he saw that first episode, he seems to have a better way of remembering where his mom is and what she’s doing right now.”
