IMAGE SOURCE: ( Pakistan Today )

BY ANTHONY MARTINEZ



Letter of the day — “f” — for fraud. The U.S. is withdrawing millions of dollars from the Pakistani spin off of Sesame Street, Sim Sim Hamara. A spokesman for the state department told NPR news the local puppet theater working on the project was misusing money, and it was time to pull the plug.

"We did receive via that hotline what we believe were credible allegations of fraud and abuse by the Rafi Peer Theater Workshop. So we did launch an investigation into the allegations.”

Originally, the U.S. funded the Pakistani Children’s television to promote quality education for the country’s tv-friendly masses. That cost around $20 million. But with these allegations coming to light, PCTV denies they had any existing knowledge of fraud within the theater group.

The headlines to follow are amusing. “Elmo caught with his hand in the cookie jar,” on the Pakistan Today .

“Elmo Gone Rogue? ” writes E! online .

But what’s not making light of the situation are reports on how the allocated money was spent. According to ABC ...

“Newspapers reported today that Rafi Peer [the Pakistani theater group] was allegedly using the money given by the U.S. to pay off old debts, and rewarded lucrative contracts to sources. Other allegations include building a fancy residential complex featuring swimming pools with the U.S. funds.”

Sure, there are literally hundreds of Sesame Streets in the world, but the BBC reports, a show like this in Pakistan could have a lasting effect in a society western observers have criticized as oppressive to women.

“In schools and stuff, generally you have the girls step back. But maybe seeing ‘Rani’ that she’s really strong-headed and the captain of the cricket team...
“I’m hoping that children would kind of relate to that and maybe take some courage.”

One of the show’s leading founders, Faizaan Peerzada, told Reuters that USAID dollars to the theater group were due to stop anyway. Al Jazeera has the theater group’s exit strategy.

“The Rafi Peer Theatre Workshop, in its own statement, said the joint project was drawing to a close ‘with mutual consent’ and that it was confident it could find alternate sources of funding to keep the program running.”

Before reports of allegations set in against Rafi Peer theater group, the show had only aired for six months.