Meena

There's a video at school called Meena.  It's a cartoon and very popular with all ages.  It's in Nepali, so I couldn't tell what was happening when I first saw it.  When I asked, I was told that this one series (it's part of a series of books, films, and TV and radio programs) is an extremely successful tool advocating girls' and children's rights in Southern Asia.  The stories tackle such topics as education, health, and gender equality and other serious subjects in a fun, entertaining, and educational manner.  UNICEF (with the help of Hanna-Barbera Cartoons) developed the series and launched it in 1998.  Besides Nepal, it's distributed throughout Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Bhutan, Sri Lanka, Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam (and perhaps even other places).

Meena and her parrot Mithu have many learning adventures, and her brother Raju appears often.  The video we have is a popular one where Meena doesn't go to school because she's a girl.  Mithu follows Raju to school every day, sits on the window sill, learns the lessons, flies home and teaches Meena what he learned.  One day Meena discovers someone is cheating her father and he realizes her education could benefit the family and allows her to go to school.  I've been told it's amazing how influential this movie has been.  When I first realized the significance of this little cartoon series, I almost got tears in my eyes thinking about it.

Other stories tell about the importance of learning to read, of Meena lobbying to get the same amount of food as Raju gets (who gets more food only because he's a boy), 

of maintaining proper hygiene and dealing with disease, etc., etc., etc.

I'm so glad that these movies, stories, and books are around!  Who knew that cartoons could be so influential and important???  

Meena, thank you for helping the beautiful children of this beautiful country!!!