We can bring the world inside...

Back in 2016, the MacArthur Foundation started a competition that was the largest of its kind – 100 million and change, where one winning proposal would win $100 million to solve a critical problem of our time. At the time, Impact Network was just way way too small to even bid on this, but I followed the competition closely. The first winner was perhaps the best choice I could have imagined – a collaboration between Sesame Street and IRC to educate children displaced by conflict.

Now, anyone who knows me really well, knows that I have wanted to work at Sesame Street for most of my adult life. I even applied to a long-shot job back in 2008 (the cover letter for which is potentially the reason my kids exist). More recently, my love for the show has grown as my kids have gotten into my beloved childhood favorite.

One of our board members (thanks, Anup!) recommended a recent 60 minute segment update on the project (which can be viewed online here, I highly recommend it!) . To me, it cemented that the first choice for this $100 million was absolutely perfect. But I also learned just how revolutionary this new project is. The current average length for refugees to be displaced is a stunning 20 years. Half of the world’s refugees are children, yet only 2% of humanitarian aid goes towards education. The plan was for Sesame Street to create a new show tackling the refugee crisis for the Middle East, and the IRC would expand services to young children directly.

As one of the IRC staff members explained:

When I meet children in the camp, I notice that they have very limited imagination…I met children. They don't know that the egg coming from a chicken. They don't know that the fish live in the sea. It's our responsibility to bring the world inside the camp. We can't, like, take them out, but we can bring the world inside.

Like so much of the world, Impact Network students can also feel secluded in this same way. Through our teachers, through technology and tablets, and through activity-based lessons, we can show them that another world is possible. Because of Impact Network, these 6,000 children know a world outside of their village.

-Reshma