Africa’s leading creator and producer of children’s educational media, Ubongo, is delighted to announce the launch of Season 1 of Akili and Me in Kinyarwanda on PACIS TV and YouTube. The popular African pre-school show helps kids discover new ways of learning that would harness their creativity, curiosity, and critical thinking.
Targeting 3 to 6-year-olds, Akili and Me helps young learners develop their vocabulary, literacy, counting, as well as life skills like empathy and conflict resolution through the adventures of Akili, a 4-year-old who travels to a magical world of learning when she falls asleep.
First aired in 2015, Akili and Me was an instant hit with Ubongo’s youngest audience.
"We have been broadcasting Akili and Me on RTV in English since 2018 and continue to do so. Now, families in Rwanda also have the chance to learn with Africa’s most popular 4-year-old in their own local language on PACIS TV as well as on our Kinyarwanda YouTube Channel,” said Ubongo’s Chief Business Officer, Doreen Kessy.
She added: "Our partnership with PACIS TV, which is currently the fastest-growing broadcast network in Rwanda, will enable us to reach families with localized messaging around the value of Early Childhood Development and keep kids learning and engaged during and post COVID-19.”
Ubongo is a pan-African, non-profit social enterprise aimed at significantly improving school readiness and learning outcomes and promoting social and behavioural change communication through localized edutainment (educational entertainment) for kids and their caregivers.
"There’s something life-changing about learning in a language that you know and understand. In 2018, we did a research study in Rwanda to evaluate Akili and Me as an educational media intervention. This was before we first aired in Rwanda. Findings from the study showed that kids who watched Akili and Me in Kinyarwanda achieved higher learning outcomes compared to kids who watched other cartoons for the same duration of time. This means that kids across Africa are learning through our edutainment and even more so when adapted into local languages,” added Ms. Kessy.
In fact, various studies by UNESCO highlight the benefits of instruction of kids in their mother tongue, including increased likelihood to enroll and succeed in school and increased likelihood of parents’ involvement and open communication with teachers on their children’s learning journeys.
The adaptation of content is critical to achieving higher learning outcomes and better engagement with kids.
Since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the education of over 1.5 billion learners has been disrupted. Rwanda and many other countries across sub-Saharan Africa closed schools to prevent further spread of the virus.
As a response, Ubongo opened up its large library of quality, African-made early learning materials and resources for free use to all broadcasters and partners, who can share with communities in need.
These Toolkits serve as teaching aids for the purpose of improving the quality of instruction with play-based visual and audio learning. The resources are arranged according to subjects and themes to make it easier for broadcasters and partners to navigate the site and download the resources free of charge (under Creative Commons license: CC-NC-ND).
Additionally, Ubongo also released public service announcements and educational videos to support health and hygiene practices and mapped content against education curriculums in African countries, with Rwanda as one of the priority markets.
Notably, Ubongo partnered with the World Health Organization to launch "Will You Wash Your Hands With Akili?” - a sing-along video to promote hygiene practices during the COVID-19 pandemic which garnered over 5.6 million views and 500,000 likes on WHO Facebook.
"We are already elevating learning for 17 million African kids, and our vision is to equip the 500 million kids in Africa with the educational foundation, critical skills, and mindsets to change their lives and the world,” concluded Ms. Kessy.
Tune in to watch Akili and Me on PACIS TV every Tuesday and Saturday from 1:30pm or watch episodes on our Kinyarwanda YouTube channel HERE.
To access all of Ubongo’s FREE downloadable educational resources, click HERE.
About Ubongo
Ubongo is Africa's leading producer of kids' edutainment. As a non-profit social enterprise they create fun, localised and multi-platform educational content that helps kids learn, and leverage their learning to change their lives.
Ubongo reaches millions of families across Africa through accessible technologies like TV, radio and mobile phones. Learn more about Ubongo at www.ubongo.org.