Elmo

Partnerships in Humanitarian Response: Bringing Hope and Opportunity to Refugee Children

Elmo, Sheryl WuDunn, Cecilia Conrad, Sarah Smith, Sherrie Westin, Odessa Ray

The MacArthur Foundation awarded a landmark $100 million grant to a partnership between Sesame Workshop and the International Rescue Committee to establish the largest early childhood intervention in humanitarian history for displaced populations. This initiative deploys a three-pronged strategy combining randomized control research, a localized Arabic media series, and direct home-based coaching to mitigate toxic stress in children aged zero to five across Jordan, Lebanon, Bangladesh, and Syria. The program's success triggered a catalyst effect, mobilizing an additional $100 million from the Lego Foundation while aiming to normalize early education funding within global humanitarian aid protocols.