From Sesame Street to Snovsk: Supporting Kids in Crisis

Over the summer, beloved Sesame Street characters like Elmo, Grover and Cookie Monster arrived in the small city of Snovsk in the Chernihiv region of Ukraine. While they only appear on TV screens, their friendly faces offer a healthy escape for children living in a war zone just miles from the Russian border.

Last year, Global Communities began working in this remote hromada under the Community-Led Emergency Action and Response (CLEAR) program, partnering with a local civil society organization known as LAMPA. With funding from the United States Agency for International Development’s Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance (USAID/BHA), children and adults started receiving psychosocial support services and attending various therapy activities in a child-friendly space created by the program.

More recently, under a renewed CLEAR 2 program, Sesame Workshop joined the partnership and developed a series of animated content and tools for teachers to help children and caregivers process the trauma of conflict and displacement.