Sisimpur steps into fifth year

‘Sisimpur’, the popular household show on Fridays, has stepped into its fifth year. To celebrate the occasion, Nayantara Communications arranged a ‘Utshob’ at Bongobondhu International Conference Centre on September 15.
Young children, the main attraction of the event, attended the programme to spend a few hours with ‘Tuktuki’ and ‘Halum’, two popular Muppet characters in the show. Other characters in Sisimpur are — ‘Ikri Mikri’, ‘Shiku’ and ‘Aby Kadabi’. The programmme, an adaptation of nonprofit educational children’s TV show Sesame Street and produced by sesameworkshop and Noyontara Communications in Bangladesh. The project is funded by USAID.
Singer Mehrin and popular writer Zafar Iqbal joined the children at the celebration. Abul Kalam Azad, minister for Information attended the event as chief guest. James F. Moriarty, ambassador, United States of America to Bangladesh; Dr. Shirin Sharmin Chowdhury, state minister for ministry of women and children affairs; Don Donohue, country director, sesameworkshop; Asaduzzaman Noor MP; Aly Zaker and Sara Zaker, project head, Nayantara Communications; Dr. Kamal Abdul Naser Chowdhury, secretary, ministry of information and others were also present at the programme.
Abul Kamal Azad congratulated Sisimpur and hoped that in future the programme will keep contributing in providing education for the young children.
James F. Moriarty said “Sesame Street, the inspiration for Sisimpur, originated in the US 40 years ago. It has grown by leaps and bounds and become popular with children and adults all over the world. Sesame Street’s unique brand of programming combines entertainment and humor with education reaching millions of children worldwide. Utilizing a highly effective approach in improving the basic education and social skills, Sisimpur has successfully embraced and adapted this very special approach.”
“One of the main reasons for its extraordinary popularity is that Sisimpur makes learning fun for children. With characters like Halum, Ikri-Mikri, Tuktuki and Shiku — the programme uses a combination of Muppets, animation and live actors to teach children the fundamentals of literacy, numeracy, colours and concept of time — helping the young develop critical thinking abilities ” he pointed out.
Speaking on Sisimpur, Sara Zaker said “The programme aims at providing children with many critical basic information through entertainment. Such programmes are very helpful to the development of the young and we hope to run the show on a regular basis for the many more years to come.”
Sisimpur is aired on BTV on Fridays.