Report reveals the lie of the USAID-funded “Sesame Street Iraq” program
Report reveals the lie of the USAID-funded “Sesame Street Iraq” program
2-20-2025
Information/ Translation …
A report by the American website Snoop revealed, on Thursday, the lie of the Sesame Street Iraq program, which the United States Agency for International Development claimed to fund, as only $473,784 was paid, while the agency claimed to have spent $20 million, which suggests that it was stolen from the American agency.
The report, which was translated by /Al-Maalouma/ agency, stated that “White House Press Secretary Caroline Levitt claimed that the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) allocated $20 million to fund the development of a television program called “Sesame Street” in Iraq. The press secretary’s statements came at a time when the Trump administration was targeting USAID with cuts or dismantling.”
“The claim appears to conflate a children’s television show featuring the Sesame Street characters and broadcast in Arabic across several countries, including Iraq, with a USAID-funded education project in Iraq that shares its name,” he added. “An archived USAID website page shows that the agency provided funding for a project called Ahlan Simsim Iraq in 2021, with the name Ahlan Simsim applying to both the television show and an early childhood development program targeting families in conflict zones.”
He continued, “The archived USAID page stated that the agency will provide $20 million in funding to the program, the nonprofit organization behind Sesame Street, between July 2021 and June 2027 to produce Ahlan Simsim Iraq, an early childhood development program.”
“The U.S. government’s AppSpending website, which is an open source of data on federal spending information, lists only $18.2 million in committed funding for Sesame Workshop during this period in the form of one $13 million grant beginning in July 2021 and another $5.2 million grant beginning in September 2021,”
he explained. “According to the U.S. government website, only $473,784 of the $20 million pledged has been disbursed, meaning the rest of the funding has yet to be disbursed or stolen. Sesame Workshop has not confirmed how much funding was pledged and disbursed by February 2025.”
The report noted that “despite the funding discrepancy, one thing remains clear: According to Sesame Workshop, a recipient of the USAID grant, USAID funds did not fund the “Sesame Street” television program in Iraq but rather the early childhood development program of the same name.”
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