Season Two of Esma3oona Program Encourages Children to Save and to Positively Contribute to the development of their communities
Encouraging children to save is considered one of the most important values that must be taken care of due to its strong impact on their lives. In this vein, a group of children who participated in the filming of the national TV program “Esma3oona”, decided to specify an episode on savings and the benefits derived from it.
The episode was based on the real-life experiences of a group of children from Kaseb Village in 6th of October governorate, a village which has so far seen the success of more than 25 saving groups of children between the ages of 11 and 15. Those groups have been keen to save money for useful matters such as paying their school fees and buying stationary items.
"The idea of forming those saving groups for children came after there were similar groups among parents to encourage them to help each other and increase their income as well as promote discussions among them on some issues related to the rights of their children. These saving groups allow individuals to increase their income as well as their families’, which is then reflected on the level of health and education of all members" Stated Mr. Ismail Mohamed, Development Project Coordinator n Plan - Egypt and who is responsible of facilitating the work of these groups.
"Moreover, when other groups of children in this village learned of that experience, they expressed a strong desire to form similar saving groups due to its significant impact on improving their living conditions as well as getting their rights. Those children have matured a lot through their experience in the Child Media Project which has been running for more than three consecutive years." Ismail added.
It is worth mentioning that this is the second season of Esma3oona –the TV program, which is one of the five components of the Child Media Project implemented by Plan Egypt in cooperation with many other partners such as Al-Karma for Edutainment, the National Council for Childhood and Motherhood (NCCM), The American University in Cairo and The Egyptian Radio and Television. Moreover, the project was funded by Nokia and the Swedish Development Agency.
There are currently 16 new weekly episodes being broadcasted on children’s rights on Channel 2 on Fridays at 2:30 pm, and these episodes are a completion of the previous 48 episodes shown last year. Different topics are being tackled such as the amendment of the new child law, street children, child abuse, verbal sexual harassment and children's role in social development, in addition to the avian influenza, Hepatitis and the rights of people living with AIDS.
