JAPAN PRIZE 2008 List of Prize

  This program is a puppet show for preschool children. The main character is a 6 year old inquisitive giraffe named Tsehai. She loves her pet butterfly and keeps him in a cage. However, one day, she is taught the importance of acting to make your loved one happy and is advised to let her butterfly go. At first, Tsehai refuses to let him go, but at night she reads a story about an ostrich with her father. In the story, the mother ostrich let her son run free and be happy, and decides to let her butterfly go. Her father praises her and presents her a picture of her butterfly. “I love you so much so I want to make you happy,” he says.
  Through interaction with her father, Tsehai learns about love. She learns how it feels, what it means, and how challenging it can be. Children are able to identify with Tsehai easily since they are presented with things and animals they see in their daily lives and learn about the feeling of love effectively. This program was produced with a limited budget and facilities, but it is filled with the producers’ warmth. The voice of Tsehai is Ms. Tadesse, the winning producer.
  We selected this entry because, while simple in execution, it is far from simplistic. The program displays a depth of understanding of human experience that is often missing in children’s media. Presenting a captivating developmentally-appropriate story, the episode artfully takes on a challenging educational aim: understanding and expressing a basic, yet complex human emotion, love. With an endearing exchange between a child and her father, the program beautifully models positive parent/child interactions and memorably and effectively achieves a secondary literacy objective (introducing a letter of the Amharic alphabet). We know preschoolers learn best when educational opportunities are consistent with and reflective of the cultural context in which they live. We are pleased to see a production invested in heightening the pride and esteem of its audience by providing a positive, child-centric depiction of life that reflects a known and familiar surrounding and by telling a story that will both engage children and deepen their life experience.
  We are extremely happy to win the Pre-school Category at the prestigious JAPAN PRIZE. Tsehai Loves Learning is created by a very small but dedicated team in Ethiopia. We face so many road blocks and wonder how much further we can push every day. We produce Tsehai Loves Learning with very limited funding & resources; we never imagined that we might win at JAPAN PRIZE. So it is very fulfilling and encouraging to be given this honor by a jury of world experts in educational pre-school media.
  We don't have government kindergartens or preschools in Ethiopia, a country where about 44.5% of the population are children under age 15. We feel a huge sense of responsibility to help fill this education gap through preschool television, reaching at least 2.8 million children with every broadcast. Even though this project is well loved by Ethiopian children and recognized worldwide, it is very vulnerable due to low funding, so this award means a lot to us.
  Thank you so much NHK and JAPAN PRIZE 2008 for recognizing our efforts. We are inspired and motivated by all the people we met at the JAPAN PRIZE. We hope to see you in 2009.

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