Meet the First-Ever Muppets to Speak This Language!

Half a million kids living in the largest refugee camp in the world located in Bangladesh will now have access to an early education and positive representation thanks to two playful Rohingya-speaking Muppets!

“These are two very special Sesame Muppets,” says Sherrie Westin, Sesame Workshop’s president of social impact and philanthropy. “For most Rohingya children, Noor and Aziz will be the very first characters in media who look and sound like them. Rooted in the rich Rohingya culture and informed by extensive research and input from Rohingya families, Noor and Aziz will bring the transformative power of playful learning to families at a time when it’s needed more than ever before.”

The six-year-old twins Noor Yasmin and Aziz will be featured in Rohingya-language educational media as part of the Play to Learn program developed by Sesame Workshop, this year’s winner of the Global Citizen Prize for Culture and Education for its dedication to early education to children in 150 countries. The refugee camp located in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, is home to a million Rohingya, of which half are children. These Muppets could be the start of a life of continued learning for these kids. “If we can help these children get off on the right start — where they can thrive — then they have so much more of a chance of succeeding later on,” says Westin.