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New Game Show Wins Hearts
and Minds
Treasure Valley
demonstrates God’s love by including
physically and mentally disabled children, and challenging
Arab societies to do the same.
Treasure Valley begins
with a cartoon Pharaoh flying through the air. Like many
other kids' game shows, the animated introduction
soon dissolves away and a TV studio appears. But
unlike most kids' programs, when the camera pans across the
studio audience we see a mix of children, some able bodied,
some in wheelchairs or on crutches, and some wearing hearing
aids. As the show hosts explain how teams of children
will compete in games of knowledge and physical skill,
an interpreter for each team translates the words into sign
language for the deaf contestants. Even the set itself has
been built with ramps and handrails to accommodate special
needs.
The hosts never mention that Treasure
Valley
has taken extra measures to include children with special
needs who are usually excluded from participating in such
games—that’s the point, to show that children with physical
or mental challenges can and should be integrated into
“regular” activities.
“In the
Middle East and North Africa it’s rare to see a disabled
person in the workplace or involved in every day
activities—and the prevailing attitude is that families with
disabled children have been cursed by God, or that their
parents must have sinned, or that disabled persons are only
beggars who are possibly pretending to have injuries for
financial gain. Many negative opinions abound,” says
Executive Producer Ray Lovejoy. “We want to challenge this
attitude by showing that disabled persons have the right to
be treated as equal members of society in education and in
work, and that these children can succeed in many areas of
life.” Funding for the program came largely from Norad, a
Norwegian government agency working to improve societies
around the world.
Even before Treasure Valley
made it to the SAT-7 screen,
it had an impact. 120 children participated in the taping of
26 episodes, and the attitudes of these kids, and many other
people involved in the production process were radically
changed by the experience. For example, some teachers who
brought able-bodied children to the show would call the
disabled youths “you” or “they” and never address them by
name. A producer pointed this out and then the teachers
began to treat all the children with more respect. Many
able-bodied children had never been around disabled children
before and some told their parents they didn’t know how to
treat the other kids. During the show they overcame their
inhibitions, became friends and even began to invite the
physically challenged kids to other activities. Some
teachers decided to try and repeat the kids' game activities
in churches across Egypt. And many disabled children, and
their parents, commented this was the best experience they
had ever had.
By
seeing that children with physical and mental challenges can
succeed in regular tasks (in this case as game show
contestants) the producers of Treasure Valley believe
many thousands of Arab viewers will be won over and begin to
give their disabled neighbors the recognition and rights
they are entitled to.
Treasure Valley began
airing every Friday on the SAT-7 Arabic Satellite
Channel in July 2005.
