What Is Panwapa?
The Need
What Does it Mean for Your Child to be a Part of Panwapa?
Panwapa Online Activities
Frequently Asked Questions
Technical Requirements

What Is Panwapa?

Panwapa is a floating island that travels the five oceans of the world. In the Tshiluba language, spoken in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in central Africa, the word "Panwapa" means "here on this earth." So Panwapa Island is here -- but also everywhere, and its inhabitants are simply "of the earth" -- citizens of the global community.

As the imaginary location for Sesame Workshop and Merrill Lynch's groundbreaking international initiative, Panwapa has a fitting name. It's a place where children from all over the world can explore and grow.

The Need

Children today are growing up in an increasingly interconnected world. Consider your own community and think of the many ways in which the outside world touches you. Perhaps you get news from around the world, or maybe there are more varieties of people and languages in your community than ever before. Music and popular culture are also often from another country. Plus, the Internet is fast becoming an essential tool for children and adults to communicate and connect within an ever-shifting global culture.

Technology is drawing people across the world closer together, creating opportunities, and bringing about change. This interconnectedness is also demanding that children develop greater awareness and skills to navigate and thrive in the world. Panwapa is a multimedia initiative that harnesses the efforts of international educators and media producers to help children gain the perspectives and competencies that form the basis of becoming global citizens. We believe that today, more than ever, learning how to be a global citizen is fundamental to a child's healthy development.

Panwapa's educational goals are built upon five cornerstones that educators have identified as central to global citizenship. As young children experience Panwapa -- online, in video, and in print -- they will encounter these ideas presented in ways that are appropriate for and relevant to them.

What Does it Mean for Your Child to be a Part of Panwapa?

1) Panwapa Kids are Aware of the Wider World Around Them
It's difficult even for adults to grasp just how big our world is, and how many different types of people live here. For young children, it's even harder. This understanding begins at home, with an appreciation of themselves and their own culture. Recognising the amazing variety of people in the world follows from identifying and valuing the roles of oneself and others in the family, neighbourhood, and community.

2) Panwapa Kids Appreciate Similarities and Value Differences Between Themselves and Others
Once children have established a sense of who they are, they begin to recognise that other people are both different from and similar to them. Panwapa encourages children to appreciate the things we have in common and to embrace the differences. After all, diversity helps make the world a more interesting place to live!

3) Panwapa Kids Feel a Sense of Responsibility for Their Behaviours
Every child is part of a community, whether a family, classroom, neighbourhood, or country. In understanding the role they play within their community, and how their actions may affect others, children learn to take pride in and be responsible for their behaviour. This prepares them to be considerate citizens of the world community.

4) Panwapa Kids are Active Participants in Their Community
In such a big world, how can just one person make a difference? Very young children can learn the basics of community involvement in a number of ways, such as cleaning up their toys, helping to put out the garbage, or watering plants. Older children can become involved by helping to beautify their neighbourhood, assisting the elderly, and donating their resources to those less fortunate. Involving children in activities that model respect for others and for the environment prepares them to be proactive in effecting change within a larger community.

5) Panwapa Kids Understand and Respond to Economic Disparities
Young children are often well attuned to the concept of fair versus unfair, right versus wrong. They can understand that people share certain basic needs (water, food, shelter), but that not everyone has what they need to live safely and happily. This understanding can be expanded into an awareness of social injustices (poverty, discrimination) and the possibility of social change (organising a food drive, recycling, re-building, re-planting). Recognition of our responsibilities to others in the world is fundamental to responding to economic inequalities.

Panwapa Online Activities

From the Panwapa main page (www.panwapa.com) your child can access a variety of online activities.

1) Panwapa World

Panwapa World features an interactive globe that children explore to meet and visit Panwapa Kids from around the world. Activities include: creating your own Panwapa Kid, Home, and Flags; collecting Panwapa Cards; searching for Panwapa Kids based on similarities and differences; and playing Treasure Hunt games.

Take a Tour
There is a lot to explore in Panwapa World. Before joining, your child can take a tour to see how this world works. The tour, hosted by a resident of Panwapa named Azibo and his Panwapa friends, introduces your child to the many exciting activities and adventures that await every Panwapa Kid!

Join Panwapa World
Joining Panwapa World is easy, fun, and free!

• First, choose where your child lives from the drop-down menu. The place you choose will automatically be used to create your child's Panwapa Name.
  
• Then, have your child think of a secret password and type it into the space provided. Keep in mind that this password must be between four and ten characters long, and should be something easy for your child to remember.
  
• Please write down or print your child's Panwapa Name and password, and keep it in a safe and easy to remember place. Your child will need his or her Panwapa Name and password to log back into Panwapa World and revisit all of the fun activities he or she will do there. We will not be able to send any of this information to you later.

Panwapa Kids
After joining Panwapa World, your child will design his or her Panwapa Kid. There are lots of different body colours, eyes, mouths, hairstyles, shoes and outfits to choose from. Encourage your child to play with different combinations to see which one he or she likes the best. Your child's Panwapa Kid might look and dress like your child, like someone from another culture, or even like an astronaut or a dragon!

Panwapa Homes
After your child creates a Panwapa Kid, it is time to build a Panwapa Home. Your child can choose the shape, building materials, and surrounding landscape for his or her home. Encourage your child to try clicking on the different choices to see which home and landscape he or she likes the best. After making a home, your child's Panwapa Kid can go out and visit other Panwapa Kids at their homes. Exploring Panwapa World is exciting, and it's easy to return home after travelling around the world. Clicking on the My Home button will always take your child back to his or her Panwapa Home.

Panwapa Flags
The next step is to create his or her Panwapa Flags, by choosing one favourite item from each of six categories: food, animals, sports, musical instruments, activities, and crafts. The six items will be displayed on flags in front of your child's Panwapa Home, telling other Panwapa Kids about some of your child's favourite things. The items featured on these flags will also be displayed on your child's Panwapa Card.

Panwapa Cards
Within Panwapa World, Panwapa Kids exchange Panwapa Cards with friends. Panwapa Cards feature the child's Panwapa name, picture, and flags. These cards also include a pre-scripted simple message chosen by the sender, such as: "We like some of the same things, and some different things!" and "I like your house. Please visit mine!" Your child can collect one Panwapa Card from each Panwapa Kid. Children can also collect other sets of cards, as described below.

Panwapa Islander Cards
These cards feature the characters from Panwapa Island: Azibo, Tungar, Koko, Baabra and her lambs, Athena, and Bill the Bug! Your child receives a Panwapa Islander Card when one of these characters comes to visit his or her Panwapa Home.

Rare Animal Cards
These cards feature rare, fascinating animals from all over the world. Your child can collect these cards either through a chance encounter in the animal's native country, or as a reward for completing a Panwapa Kid card set.

World Cards
These cards show the name of a place in the world, its flag, and its shape. Your child will automatically receive a World Card the first time he or she visits a new place. Your child can also win a World Card by completing a Treasure Hunt.

Wild Cards
These cards are very desirable because they can be used to complete any card set. It's not so easy to get a Wild Card, though; they only show up occasionally as a special prize for completing a Treasure Hunt.

My Cards: Visitors
By clicking on the Visitors button, your child will see a listing of all the Panwapa Kids who have visited and left them a Panwapa Card. To see a Panwapa Card up close, click on a Panwapa Kid in the list. To visit that Panwapa Kid, just click on the Go button.

My Cards: Collections
By receiving Panwapa Cards, your child automatically begins to complete various card collections: World Cards, Rare Animal Cards, Panwapa Islander Cards, as well as sets of Panwapa Kids who have some, all, or even none of the same favourite things as your child on their flags.

By clicking on the Collections button, your child can view all of his or her card sets. Click on any set to view the cards in it, or choose to view all the Complete Sets. In some sets, your child can flip the cards to reveal parts of a puzzle! The completed puzzle picture may reveal a Rare Animal. Click on the picture, and you can go visit it.

My Home
This is your child's home base in Panwapa World -- featuring his or her Panwapa Kid, Home, and Flags. It also tracks Panwapa Card activity, and allows your child to modify his or her Panwapa Kid, Home, and Flags. Your child can update these choices at anytime and as often as he or she wants.

Search
By clicking on the Search button, your child can look for all of the Panwapa Kids who like particular items, as indicated on their Panwapa Flags. Search results are indicated by colour -- the darker the shading, the more Panwapa Kids who match your child's search. Your child can zoom in to visit the home of Panwapa Kids who match the searched item(s).

World View
Clicking on any of the seven World View buttons allows your child to reorganise the globe by either Panwapa Flag categories or countries. For instance, if your child would like to view the world organised by sports, the globe will feature "land masses" representing the communities of Panwapa Kids who like tennis, basketball, biking and so on. This view of the world will remain the same until your child changes it by selecting another World View.

Treasure Hunt
To play a Treasure Hunt, your child follows a series of clues to find Panwapa Kids. One clue leads to another, taking your child all over Panwapa World. Your child can find Panwapa Kids that match the clue by using the Search tool, by changing the World View, or by using Panwapa Cards. Treasure Hunts will get more challenging with each hunt your child completes. When your child completes a hunt, he or she will win a very special Panwapa Card.

Information Booths
As your child explores Panwapa World, he or she will encounter "information booths" in some countries that feature fascinating cultural and geographical highlights about those places. Information booths can be found in Japan, Mexico, China, Argentina, the United States, the United Kingdom, Jordan, Lebanon, Spain, India, and South Africa.

2) Hide and Seek with Koko

Hide and Seek is a game set on Panwapa Island -- Koko hides, and your child seeks! Choose a language other than one you speak. Koko will give your child clues, including the name of her hiding spot in the selected language.

3) Panwapa Movie Play-Along

The Panwapa Movie Play-Along offers an opportunity for your child to view short films about real kids and their experiences in different parts of the world. The topics of the films focus on access to different resources, including safe water, food, and education. In watching these films, viewers are exposed to the idea that kids from around the world have the same basic needs, but live in different economic conditions. Hosted by Bill the Bug, this interactive activity allows your child to play along and find moments in each film that highlight something special about the Panwapa Kid's experience. Then your child can answer a fun poll question related to the movie and compare his or her answers to those of other kids in Panwapa World.

4) Panwapa Videos

Panwapa Videos feature the Panwapa opening song and four stories that introduce your child to the Panwapa characters as they build their community on Panwapa Island. These fun, musical stories will provide you numerous opportunities to discuss ideas related to the goals of global citizenship.

5) Printable Activities for Panwapa Kids

From within the For Caregivers section of the website, you can read and download print materials with creative ideas to help your child extend the Panwapa online experience into the real world.

Panwapa Magazine
The Panwapa Magazine provides information and ideas for caregivers to help children get the most out of the Panwapa experience. The magazine features fun games and simple, everyday activities that you can do with your child one-on-one or in groups. The magazine also has a Kids' Section that can be given to one child, or copied for many children to use.

Panwapa Board Game: Adventure on Panwapa Island
Adventure on Panwapa Island is a playful introduction to Panwapa Island that gives small groups of children opportunities to co-operate and have fun. One unique aspect of this game is that children are encouraged to make up their own game cards. The more they make up, the better the game.

Azibo and Koko's World Tour
Azibo and Koko's World Tour is an entertaining activity that involves learning about other cultures, people, and places.

Games Around the World
Games Around the World includes traditional games from around the globe and instructions on how to play them.

Circle Domino Game
The Circle Domino Game is a game idea that includes building a sing-along circle with Panwapa domino game cards.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I change the language setting?
Panwapa is available in Arabic, English, Japanese, Mandarin, and Spanish. You can change the language in which you and your child experience the site either at www.panwapa.com or while signing in to Panwapa World. To change to another language, simply click on the button next to that language. If you are having trouble viewing the site in Arabic, please see the Technical Requirements section located at the end of this page.

How do I change my internet connection speed setting?
Panwapa is designed to be used by people with varying degrees of internet connection speed. You can change your connection speed setting at www.panwapa.com or while signing in to Panwapa World.

How do I know that I selected the right internet connection speed?
The fast internet connection (broadband, high bandwidth) version of Panwapa is best experienced at DSL and Cable modem speeds. If you have a 56k modem, the slow internet connection (dial-up, low bandwidth) version may be a better option.

Why don't I hear any sound?
If you don't hear any sound:

• Make sure that your computer's sound is not muted and is turned up to an appropriate level.
  
• Make sure your speakers are turned on.
  
• Make sure your speakers or headphones are connected to the sound out or headphone socket on your computer.

Why can't I play the online videos?
You may need to upgrade or configure your browser to make it compatible with the videos on www.panwapa.com. Use the links below to make any updates:

• Internet Explorer 5.5 or higher Upgrade your IE browser. Directions for configuring your IE browser.
  
• Netscape Navigator 7 or higher Upgrade your Netscape browser.
• Safari Download the Safari browser.
  
• Mozilla (Gecko) Download the Mozilla (Gecko) browser.
  
• Mozilla Firefox Download the Mozilla Firefox browser.