OdishaPlus Bureau
Now, there is a reason for the children to rejoice during the lockdown period as UNICEF produced popular cartoon series Meena is going to reconnect the audience in the Odia digital media space.
Leading Odia news platform ‘OdishaLIVE’ and Odia digital health and wellness platform ‘Swasthya Plus’ are going to publish the animation and audio series of Meena, across their web and social channels. The initiative, supported by UNICEF, aims at reaching out to the target audience with a focus on children and youth.
Meena is going to be a part of the digital media campaign titled ‘Keta Nua Bata’, in Odia, with the tagline ‘Together for Tomorrow’, which will also cover other digital media posts. The campaign will take off on 26 May 2020 and continue for over a period of 3 months.
The cartoon series, in Odia, will be published on the websites www.odisha.live and www.swasthya.plus. It will also be posted to the social channels YouTube, Facebook and Helo of both OdishaLIVE and Swasthya Plus. The campaign aims to reach out to a large audience in the digital sphere through websites, social platforms and content aggregation apps.
About Meena
‘Meena’ is a popular animation series which was produced by UNICEF in the nineties to create awareness on providing equal space to the girl child in every endeavor of her life. In the animated videos Meena, the protagonist, takes you through her adventures with her brother Raju and her parrot Mithu discussing the lives of children in the setting of their village and beyond.
In fact, Meena, a spirited nine-year old girl who depicts the life of children in South Asia, smartly tackles key issues affecting the children, and promotes the protection and rights of girls. The series highlights a range of social issues relating to sanitation, education, health, and hygiene etc. and draws the attention of key stakeholders of the society.
1990-2000 was being observed as the decade of the girl child. Thus, UNICEF decided to celebrate the decade by creating an animated film series to entertain and inspire girls, their families and communities across South Asia. Meena was an impactful outcome of the same thought of UNICEF.
Cartoon or animation has been an important and engaging mode of communication. Thus Meena had become a successful case story which was adopted by UNICEF in different languages across the South Asian region including countries like India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Bhutan etc.
Truly, Meena blends the core elements of media like information, education, and entertainment while reaching out to the target audience.