1001 Nights Life Skills and Civil Education program
MLC VANGUARD | Created by Big Bad Boo Studios
1001 Nights is multimedia educational program based on a 62-episode animated television series that not only airs on commercial entertainment but has been adapted into a life skills and civic education curriculum for use in formal and informal settings, including schools and refugee/internally-displaced persons (IDP) safe spaces.
1,050,000 Lives Impacted
1001 Nights has been lauded for its data driven approach to monitoring and evaluating impact. Using unique M&E instruments developed by the former head of research from Sesame Street, as well as data scientists from Oxford University, all implementations of the program to date have shown that it effectively inculcates civic values, promotes social cohesion, provides PSS, excites children to go to school, teaches empathy and inclusion, and dramatically reduces notions of gender equality.
A 2018 implementation that used radio theatre and TV in Syria, for example, reached over 4.5 million people 3 times per week for 40 days. Pre- and post-tests of children found substantial changes in key civic values, including notions of gender equality (92% increase), preferences for non-violence to resolve disputes (56% increase), and inclusion of outgroups (122% increase).
The Innovation
Winner of the 2018 WISE Award for innovative approaches to education, 1001 Nights uses cartoons to teach civic education and life skills to children in and out of school. In learning environments, children watch a 10-minute episode of 1001 Nights, and are then directed through discussions and activities by their teachers, with take home activities to be completed with their parents and siblings. Teachers are provided with USBs which include animated episodes of 1001 Nights, a teacher’s guide (scripted lesson plans for each lesson which are structured to stimulate critical thinking skills) and a companion storybook (written versions of each episode for settings that do not have audio-visual equipment). The program is designed to be used in high, medium and no-tech environments through a combination of TV, radio, social media, messaging apps, and other mediums as appropriate to the context.
About Big Bad Boo Productions
Big Bad Boo Productions (BBB) is an award-winning children’s media company that develops educational content wrapped in entertainment. Its products include animated cartoons (that air commercially on television), books, games and academic curricula -all of which are developed to promote specific learning objectives, including literacy and numeracy as well as soft-skills, like inclusion, human rights, the rule of law and empathy.
Implemented in
Big Bad Boo’s innovation has been implemented in:
4 countries in the MENA region
2 countries in Northern Africa
2 countries in Latin America
3 countries in Asia
4 countries in Europe
