Chihuahua, Chihuahua, Mexico. March 5th, 2020.– Sesame Workshop and the Social Development Secretariat presented Ready to Play!, a community strategy in the state of Chihuahua. This program is supported by FEMSA Foundation and is based on multiple platforms. It aims to promote healthy habits in boys and girls at preschool level using game and fun, along with the characters of Sesame Street, as main catalysts of learning.
Ready to Play! is focused on early impact, primary prevention and the empowerment of children and their families regarding public health. In this way, Ready to Play! is structured in for units corresponding to the topics of body consciousness, personal care, physical activity and healthy diets, to which the development of self-regulation has been integrated transversally.
As part of this initiative, children in the state of Chihuahua will learn about healthy habits from beloved characters of Sesame Street. For this, Sesame Street will train the personnel of the Child Attention Centers Unit with to give them the necessary tools and knowledge so that they can in turn train 300 educational agents of 200 child development centers, who will receive materials of the program, such as guides for facilitators, storybooks, story rugs and the videos of Ready to Play!
“The environment of children has a great influence over them. With Ready to Play! we contribute to strengthen the abilities of educators, accompanying them during the deployment to ensure that they have tools with which they can impulse the development of skills that will stay with the children for life, such as those related with the control and regulation of emotions. Ready to Play! is an innovative model in its way to approach contents that can be replicated in different communities of Mexico and Latin America and will allow us to continue expanding the social impact in children and their communities”, Eva Fernandez, Manager of Social Investment in Early Childhood of FEMSA Foundation, commented.
On the other hand, Brenda Campos, Director of Social Impact of Sesame Workshop for Latin America, said that “The promotion of habits that impact positively the development of children is one of the central axes of our mission at Sesame Workshop. We direct our efforts towards initiatives that will allow us to help the youngest to grow healthy, intelligent and kind, especially those who are in more vulnerable conditions. With this alliance with the Social Development Secretariat of Chihuahua, we wish to plant the seeds that promote healthy habits from an early age so that the new generations are able to achieve their greatest potential”.
“Our commitment with the children of Chihuahua makes us search for alliances with institutions that bring solutions to improve their development. We are happy to join this regional and national initiative along Sesame Street and FEMSA Foundation, with the aim to strengthen the skills of educational agents that work in the childcare centers and thus guarantee the integral development of the target population, since we work so that Chihuahua is the state that better takes care of its children”, said Dr. Victor Manuel Quintana Silveyra, Secretary of Social Development and President of the Service Provision for the Child’s Integral Attention, Care and Development in the State of Chihuahua.
Ready to Play! has already been deployed in childcare centers and preschools of Chiapas, Mexico State and Nuevo Leon, and also in countries such as Brazil, Colombia and Guatemala, reaching more than 15 thousand children. Additionally, since its distribution began in 2016, its content has arrived through mass media and social media to more than 10 million people in Mexico, Colombia and Ecuador.
About Sesame Workshop
Sesame Workshop is the non-profit education organization behind Sesame Street, the pioneer television program that has been reaching and teaching children since 1969. Today, Sesame Workshop is an innovative force for change, with the mission to help children everywhere in the world to grow smarter, stronger and kinder. We are present in more than 150 countries, serving children through a wide variety of media, formal education and social impact programs philanthropically financed, each one based on rigorous research and adapted to the needs and cultures of the communities we serve.
About FEMSA Foundation
Since eleven years ago, FEMSA Foundation generates positive impact in people and communities through social investment projects for sustainability. We seek to ensure water safety and the sustainable use of water in Latin America and we take action to help early childhood development. We have also incorporated the diffusion of Latin American art and culture through the FEMSA’s Cultural Program. For further information visit the website www.fundacionfemsa.org or follow us on Facebook (FundacionFEMSA) and Twitter (@FundacionFEMSA).
