Originally published 2020-02-11.
Ryan Donnell/Sesame Workshop
Ahlan Simsim ("Welcome Sesame" in Arabic) is an Arabic-language version of Sesame Street made for young children in Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and Iraq, with a special focus on children who have been forced from their homes by the Syrian war. It premiered on the Arab children's channel MBC 3 on 2 February 2020 and is also available online, including on YouTube. Its first season was built around one big idea: helping children recognise and name their feelings, such as fear, anger, frustration, worry and loneliness, and giving them simple ways to cope.
The show was produced by Sesame Workshop, the non-profit behind Sesame Street, together with the International Rescue Committee (IRC), and filmed in Amman, Jordan. Here is what the programme is, who its characters are, how it was funded, and what researchers have found about its effects.
Why a children's show about feelings
When people think about the needs of refugee families, they rightly think first of shelter, food, water and safety. The emotional side of displacement is less visible and easier to overlook. Young children who lose their home, their neighbourhood and sometimes members of their family may show it in nightmares, clinginess, outbursts of anger, or by withdrawing into silence. They often do not yet have the words to explain what is happening inside them.
The scale of the problem is huge. When the show was being prepared, the UN refugee agency counted more than 65 million people forced from their homes by conflict and persecution. By mid-2025, UNHCR's estimate had risen to about 117.3 million forcibly displaced people worldwide, including nearly 42.5 million refugees. Millions of them are young children.
Ahlan Simsim is not therapy and does not claim to be. Its aim is more modest and more practical: to give children and the adults around them a shared, friendly language for emotions, delivered by characters children enjoy, in their own dialect.
Meet the characters: Basma, Jad and Ma'zooza
At the centre of the show are two new Muppets, both about six years old:
- Basma, a purple monster who loves to perform, sing and put on shows.
- Jad, a yellow monster who is new to the neighbourhood after having to leave his home, and who loves to draw and make art. His story mirrors that of many displaced children, without ever spelling out a war.
- Ma'zooza, a baby goat who loves circles. Basma and Jad teach her new things, which lets young viewers see that children can be teachers and leaders too.
Familiar faces appear as well. Localised versions of Elmo, Cookie Monster (known as Kaaki) and Grover (Gargur) come from Iftah Ya Simsim, the much-loved Kuwaiti Arabic version of Sesame Street that ran from 1979 to 1990 and that many of today's Arab parents grew up with. The cast also includes human characters, animated segments, and in later seasons Ameera, a character who uses a wheelchair.
The show is mainly in Levantine Arabic and mixes Iraqi, Jordanian, Lebanese and Syrian dialects, so children across the region hear voices that sound like home. Some episodes have also been translated into Kurdish.
What children learn: naming emotions and coping
The first season focused on emotional literacy, covering nine different emotions. Each episode, about 26 minutes long, shows the characters running into a feeling in an everyday situation, then trying out a strategy such as counting to five, taking deep breaths, drawing, or asking a trusted adult for help.
Later seasons widened the focus: coping with the COVID-19 pandemic in season 2, handling life's challenges and resolving conflicts in season 3, perseverance, optimism and hope in season 4, and kindness to oneself and others in season 5.
For parents and teachers, the approach offers a useful takeaway even outside the show. Children cope better when a feeling has a name. Simple phrases like "you look worried" or "it is OK to feel angry, let's count to five together" help a child connect a sensation in the body with a word, and a word with something they can do about it.
Who paid for it: MacArthur, LEGO and USAID
The project grew out of one of the largest philanthropic grants ever made for early childhood in a humanitarian crisis. In 2017 the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation awarded Sesame Workshop and the IRC $100 million to build an early-childhood programme for families affected by the Syrian conflict, combining the TV show with in-person services such as preschool classes and parenting sessions. The IRC began that outreach work in late 2018.
In December 2018 the LEGO Foundation added another $100 million over five years, released as milestones were met, to bring learning through play to children affected by both the Syrian and the Rohingya refugee crises. In Bangladesh, that money supported an expansion of BRAC's Humanitarian Play Labs for Rohingya refugee children and children in the host communities. Sesame Workshop's then chief executive, Jeffrey D. Dunn, called the global refugee crisis "the humanitarian issue of our time". In July 2021, USAID contributed a further $20 million.
It is worth keeping these amounts separate: the MacArthur and LEGO grants covered a wider set of programmes, not only the television series.
Does it work? What the research says
Because the project was meant to change how humanitarian aid serves young children, it was built with independent evaluation from the start. NYU's Global TIES for Children studied the IRC's programmes. A June 2023 report found that an 11-week programme combining in-person and remote sessions had effects on children's language, numeracy and social-emotional development comparable to a full year of preschool. An audio-only programme for caregivers did not improve children's learning, but it did reduce caregivers' depressive symptoms, which matters because a child's wellbeing is closely tied to how their parents are coping.
Studies of the show itself have linked watching it to better emotional regulation and larger emotional vocabularies among children, including a 2023 study in Jordan. According to figures summarised on Wikipedia, about 5.2 million children in Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria watched the first two seasons, and an estimated 23 million children saw the show in 2022.
The series has also been recognised by the industry. It won a Teachers' Choice Award at the Chicago International Children's Film Festival in November 2020 and was nominated for an International Emmy Kids Award in 2021, the first nomination of its kind for a Jordanian production.
A few myths to set aside
"It is just Sesame Street dubbed into Arabic." It is an original production, filmed in Amman in regional dialects, with stories and new characters created for children in the region.
"It is only for refugees." The show speaks to the experience of displacement, but its feelings and coping skills are useful for every child, and it is broadcast to all children in the region, including those in host communities.
"A TV show can fix trauma." It cannot, and its makers do not claim it can. It works best alongside family support, schools, and professional help where it is needed. If a child's distress is severe or lasts a long time, talk to a doctor or a qualified health professional.
What Ahlan Simsim shows is that kindness, play and a few well-chosen words can reach children where large aid programmes often do not: in their imagination, and in the conversations they have with the adults who love them.
Sources: Photo: Ryan Donnell/Sesame Workshop; Wikipedia: Ahlan Simsim; International Rescue Committee: LEGO Foundation awards $100 million to Sesame Workshop; UNHCR: Figures at a glance.
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