Supporting the Youngest Refugees during the COVID-19 Crisis and Beyond
As the international community marks World Refugee Day on June 20, millions of refugees around the globe — half of whom are children — are facing a dual crisis. Children whose lives have already been upended by conflict and displacement are now exposed to even greater risk as the COVID-19 pandemic unfolds.
Six months ago, at the first-ever Global Refugee Forum, Sesame Workshop joined in a collective effort to champion the critical importance of early education and nurturing care as a lifeline to help the youngest refugees overcome the impacts of trauma and reach their full potential. Too often, young children and those who care for them are overlooked in times of crisis, but the Forum saw humanitarian and development leaders stepping forward with a renewed commitment to make the needs of the youngest refugees a priority.
During the current COVID-19 pandemic, we all have the opportunity to make those commitments real. Sesame Workshop stands with our partners and the broader movement committed to elevating early childhood development during the current crisis and beyond. I’m proud to share what we and our partners are doing in response to the COVID-19 pandemic in refugee and host communities.
A global response: The power of media to reach and teach in times of crisis
During this period of disruption, Sesame Workshop is uniquely positioned to help reach young children and families through the power of educational media. In March, we launched the Caring for Each Other initiative to support children’s learning and well-being throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, offering a wide range of educational resources for families as well as PSAs with critical health messages in 36 languages across 93 countries.
This week, we added to this offering with the premiere of Elmo’s World News, a new family special created in partnership with the LEGO Foundation to bring playful learning and emotional support to children and families around the world — including those affected by displacement. We are also producing a series of short-form videos and digital activities on staying healthy, learning at home through play, and social-emotional learning.
Ahlan Simsim: Supporting caregivers to promote children’s learning and well-being at home
In the Middle East, we’ve adapted our Ahlan Simsim program in partnership with the International Rescue Committee to continue to reach refugee and host communities during this challenging time. While in-person direct services are on hold, we’re using WhatsApp to stay in touch with families and deliver key COVID-19 awareness messages and resources to promote playful learning. We also produced a broadcast special called Ahlan Simsim: Friends Time to model fun, educational activities that children and caregivers can do together inside — including critical social-emotional lessons to help build resilience. Links to videos, new storybooks, and activity sheets are also available for families on the Ahlan Simsim website.
Play to Learn: Delivering practical support for learning through play
In the Rohingya refugee camps and host community in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, we’re working also in partnership with BRAC, the IRC, and the LEGO Foundation to adapt our Play to Learn program to continue to meet the urgent needs of young children and their caregivers as the pandemic unfolds –including ensuring access to play-based learning opportunities that are vital to children’s development. While in-person services are suspended, we’re still reaching families using regular check-in phone calls with trained BRAC outreach workers to offer the latest health messages and practical support to caregivers for playful learning, as well as developing a series of short-form audio content with tips on play and engagement, family nutrition, COVID-19, and caregiver mental health.
Expansion into Latin America: Partnering to support Venezuelan refugees
Sesame Workshop is also expanding our humanitarian work in Latin America to respond to the needs of Venezuelan refugee and migrant children and families in Colombia. Thanks to generous funds from Finland’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and in partnership with the Inter-American Development Bank, we are testing innovative tech interventions using WhatsApp to reach caregivers while on the move, as well as a small plug-in device designed to broadcast content from Sésamo, our co-production of Sesame Street for Latin America, over free local Wi-Fi access in child-friendly migrant protected spaces.
What still needs to be done: Increasing prioritization and investment in the early years in COVID-19 response and beyond
The COVID-19 pandemic has wreaked havoc around the world — interrupting our usual modes of operation and challenging us to rethink how we respond in times of crisis. The international community is returning to a call to “build back better.” To achieve this ambition, we must start with prioritizing and investing in the youngest generation.
What does prioritizing the youngest generation look like in refugee response? First, we must ensure that the needs of refugee children are visible and understood. Too often, the needs of young children and their caregivers are left out of crisis needs assessments and humanitarian plans, so they remain invisible, poorly understood, and underfunded. We applaud those humanitarian actors who are advocating for greater inclusion of early childhood in response plans at the national level, and we encourage others to do the same.
Donors can also make a lasting difference in the lives of the youngest refugees — and give them the tools they need to rebuild their societies — by increasing investment in the critical early years. Key donors such as Education Cannot Wait have already made the important step of earmarking 10 percent of their budget for early childhood education, and we call on others to follow suit.
The COVID-19 pandemic is an unprecedented challenge — and a test of our shared responsibility to protect the prospects of the youngest generation, especially those who were already vulnerable and are now at risk of being left even further behind. Sesame Workshop and our partners echo the call to “build back better” and urge humanitarian actors, donors, and governments to put the youngest refugees and their families at the heart of these efforts.
Interested in learning more about what Sesame Workshop and other early years advocates are doing to support young children during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond?
· To learn more about what humanitarian actors, governments, and donors can do to ensure prioritization and investment in ECD during the current crisis and beyond, see the Moving Minds Alliance statement on COVID-19 in Pre-Existing Humanitarian Crises.
· See the Early Childhood Development Action Network Call for Coordinated Action to protect and support all young children and their caregivers during the COVID-19 pandemic response and recovery.
· Read Sesame Workshop’s post on Supporting Parents to Foster Children’s Learning and Well-Being in Times of Crisis on the Global Partnership for Education’s blog.
· Watch Sesame’s education experts present on a webinar on Distance Learning during COVID-19: Continuing Education in Low-Resource and Low-Tech Environments, hosted by the Inter-Agency Network for Education in Emergencies.
· Watch this #DearWorldLive episode on Lessons from the Pandemic: Education and the Coronavirus, hosted by Doha Debates, featuring Sesame’s refugee programs.
· Check out this Open Dialogue featuring Sesame Workshop, BBC Media Action, UN Development Program, and Vodafone on Meeting Education Needs during COVID-19: Partnering to Reach the Most Vulnerable, hosted by Alliance4Impact, Impact17, and the Sustainable Impact Association.
