June 28, 2013
By Eric Fish

Big Bird first came to China 30 years ago to teach American kids about the Middle Kingdom. Now he’s headed to rural Guizhou to teach Chinese kids what to do in an emergency.

The famous kid’s TV series Sesame Street has partnered with China Youth and Development Foundation, China Telecom and the American telecommunications giant Qualcomm to launch the “Let’s Get Ready!” mobile app.

The free app uses video of Sesame Street Muppets to teach children aged two to seven and their parents about the importance of knowing their name and address, preparing an emergency kit and what to do during a disaster. The project is first focusing on Guizhou, China’s poorest province, which is prone to floods, earthquakes and landslides.

“China has been struck especially hard [by natural disasters] in the last couple months, like with the Sichuan Earthquake,” said Blake Tye, staff analyst for the Government Affairs group at Qualcomm. “Our formative research found that there was some discussion about how to prepare for emergencies, but the specific actionable tips and the vocabulary for parents on how to engage with their kids about emergencies wasn’t quite there.”

Sesame Street began its “Let’s Get Ready!” safety awareness program in the U.S. in the wake of Hurricane Katrina after young children were found lost and not knowing their names or who their parents were. It partnered with Qualcomm’s Wireless Reach initiative in order to bring the program to mobile devices.

Qualcomm says it hopes to continue developing apps for the 108.2 million children under the age of seven in China – many of whom lack adequate educational resources. “There are places where you may not have wire line or even running water or electricity, but you do actually sit underneath a [3G] network,” Tye said. “It’s a way for us to use that ubiquitous platform to reach as many people as possible.”

Later phases of the project may focus on issues related to kidnapping and kids being left with elderly caretakers while parents go out for migrant work.