As the first in South Africa to do kids edutainment – Sanlam has been a critical foundational partner to Takalani Sesame for two decades and has invested millions since its inception in 2000. With this support, Takalani Sesame has brought laughter and learning to a generation of children through multiple platforms, outreach programmes and live events.
Our long-standing support of Takalani Sesame has also solidified its role as a leading corporate champion of children and education in South Africa, producing great content focused on numeracy, literature and life skills. Our ultimate objective is to develop a new generation of children that are smarter, stronger and kinder.
Takalani Sesame’s highlights and successes:
- With 95% household awareness and a reach of close to 4.2 million child viewers per month, Takalani Sesame has established itself as the premier South African early education brand
- The show has a strong relationship with the Department of Basic Education to ensure alignment with national educational goals
- Children aged 3 - 6 who watch Takalani Sesame have demonstrated learning gains of more than 20% in literacy, numeracy and life skills
- The show is known for taking on important challenges facing children, including through the creation of the groundbreaking HIV-positive character, Kami, who was named a UNICEF Champion for Children
Key new developments:
- Sesame Workshop has identified South Africa as a critical priority territory for social impact and is committed to expanding activities and ensuring long-term presence
- Takalani Sesame will be incorporating financial empowerment themes and messaging into content plans to help Sanlam meet its objective of raising a nation of Wealthsmiths™. For example, a new proposed segment of the show, Build What You Need, will show Muppets exercising their imaginations to use repurposed objects to make something useful and fun, highlighting themes of saving and resource management, needs versus wants, planning and goalsetting, and other key foundational topics.
- There are many more exciting elements planned for 2020 and beyond, so watch this space