'Lallo Lallo' - a series of children’s bedtime stories to launch on BBC Pashto
Over the next ten weeks, BBC Pashto will feature a series of children’s bedtime stories, Lallo Lallo (Lullaby). The digital series will be available on the BBC Pashto digital platforms and will be aired on Shamshad TV in Afghanistan and Mashriq TV in Pakistan.
Published: 6 December 2017
There is a clear shortage of content in Pashto for young children. Using engaging and visually appealing stories we are reaching out to an underserved and new audience
From Friday 8 December, the ten-part series of five-minute stories, written and presented by the BBC’s Najiba Kasraee, will be aired in weekly instalments.
Each episode will be published on BBC Pashto digital platforms at 14.00 GMT and will air on Shamshad TV and Mashriq TV immediately after the BBC Pashto TV programme, BBC Naray Da Wakht (BBC World Right Now).
BBC Afghan service Editor, Meena Baktash, comments: “Our new series is for very young viewers to enjoy and learn from - and also for their parents who, we hope, will become active consumers of our programmes and content.”
The project lead, BBC Pashto Digital Editor, Ismail Miakhail, adds: “There is a clear shortage of content in Pashto for young children. With this new series, using engaging and visually appealing stories, we are reaching out to an underserved and new audience.”
The resulting Lallo Lallo is a series narrated in simple, calm and warm language. Written and presented by Najiba Kasraee, Editor of the BBC Academy International Sites who started her BBC career as a BBC Pashto journalist, the educative tales address the themes of honesty, sharing, street safety, the importance of washing hands and brushing teeth - and helps children better understand the world around them.
Lallo Lallo is illustrated by the young Kabul-based artist, Nasima Mohammadi. Her cheerful and vibrant pieces, connecting a child’s life with a world of magic, create an engaging background to Najiba’s narrative.
BBC Pashto content reaches around 7m people in Afghanistan, Pakistan and the rest of the world every week*, on radio, TV, and digitally. BBC Pashto on Facebook has around 3.1m followers (December 2017), engaging 400,000** people every week. BBC Pashto also connects with its audiences via Twitter, YouTube, and Instagram.
The BBC Pashto flagship TV news programme, BBC Naray Da Wakht, is broadcast live from London in prime time on Shamshad TV in Afghanistan (18.00 local time) and Mashriq TV in Pakistan (18.30 local time). The programme is also available on demand globally, via the BBC Pashto channel on YouTube and the website bbcpashto.com.
BBC Pashto is part of the BBC World Service.
* Source: BBC Global Audience Measure 2017.
**Weekly engaged reach.
Notes to Editors
BBC World Service delivers news content around the world, on radio, TV and digital, reaching a weekly audience of 269m, in more than 30 languages. As part of BBC World Service, BBC Learning English teaches English to global audiences. The BBC attracts a weekly global news audience of 346m people to its international news services including BBC World Service, BBC World News television channel and bbc.com/news.
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