MASTER TEACHERS BY SATELLITE FOR AFGHANISTAN

Announces a SCRIPT CONTEST calling for 15 minute scripts for the Mulla Nasrudin Literacy Show In English, Dari or Pashto. Submit all contest entries to: mulla@afghanfriends.net

Master Teachers by Satellite for Afghanistan is seeking to supply by satellite television in Afghanistan an elementary school and literacy education, kindergarten through third grade, for every little girl, and little boy, who does not have access to a regular school, and also to provide literacy for adults who desire it.

The Mulla Nasrudin Literacy Show will be an integral part of the two hours per day (6 days a week, 40 weeks a year) of the satellite programming, in both Dari and Pashto.

Must be as comic as the original: The real Mulla Nasrudin lived during the Middle Ages in Afghanistan and Central Asia, a wandering comic figure with his undersized donkey, both making jokes and being the subject of jokes, returning always to his beloved wife in his rural village. He appears in innumerable comic fables, known to all Afghans. The script can include sight gags, jokes, slapstick, rhymes, short unaccompanied song, etc., designed to appeal to children, 5 to 8 years old, and where possible, to be interesting to their older family members also. Nothing sexy, obscene, violent, discriminatory, or cruel should be included.

The basic script outline: As Mulla Nasrudin travels around in Afghanistan with his donkey and his wife, his saddle bags contain all of the letters and numbers and words in Dari or Pashto. These fall out of his bags (in various ways), and he teaches them to children, both those he meets on his travels and the children in the TV audience.

The characters: The Mulla, a portly senior citizen, with a large turban and beard. His wise wife, about the same age and shape. The donkey, who can be portrayed as talking, or not. The donkey can be a cartoon or a hand puppet, or real. Both the Mulla and his wife can read and write. The children are real and some or all should be off-camera.

The lesson: Each script should focus on teaching no more than 1 to 3 small words and the letters that they contain, plus one of the numbers one through ten. If possible, the script content should be tied to one or two pages from the new literacy text book being distributed in Dari and Pashto by the Minister of Functional Literacy of the Afghanistan Ministry of Education (pages of this book will be posted on the web on 1 October 2006 along with the official contest rules.)

Islamic values: Each script should also include by example one positive Islamic ethical lesson appropriate for children, such as giving charity, stealing is bad, working hard, finishing the job, helping others, honoring parents, etc.

First prize: Your script WILL be produced and you will be given authors credits along with producer, director and actors, PLUS a round trip economy fare ticket to Kabul, Afghanistan, PLUS the opportunity to have an Internship for 6 months at Ariana Afghanistan Television in California or Afghan Film in Kabul.

Second prize: Your script MAY be produced at the option of MTSA, PLUS the opportunity to have an Internship for 6 months at Ariana Afghanistan Television in California or Afghan Film in Kabul.

Third prize: Your script MAY be produced at the option of MTSA, PLUS the opportunity to have an Internship for 3 months at Ariana Afghanistan Television in California.

Tax deduction: Every submission will be acknowledged and WILL be considered for production. Expenses incurred in creating a script (or a pilot of it on DVD) cannot be reimbursed but can be taken as a tax deduction because Master Teachers by Satellite for Afghanistan is a project of a charity with a Sec. 501(c)(3) tax determination under the Internal Revenue Code.

The contest: The contest runs until 1 December 2006, when the judges will pick first, second and third place winners from all entries submitted by midnight that date. The official contest rules will be posted on the web on 1 October 2006. Decisions of the judges will be final. By submitting a script, the author donates to Master Teachers by Satellite for Afghanistan the ownership of the script, unless other arrangements are made beforehand.

For more information or to ask questions, please contact us at:
English, Carol Ruth Silver, 800-815-8103 or myersflat@aol.com
Dari, Wahida Noorzad, 925-600-9991 or wnoorzad@sbcglobal.net
Pashto, info@afghanfriends.net

Submission: Entries may be submitted in English, Dari or Pashto, preferably by email to Mulla@afghanfriends.net. If email is not possible, submit by fax to 415-522-1933 or a hard copy by postal mail to 68 Ramona Av, San Francisco, CA 94103. Be sure to include the authors contact information, including a telephone number. If you submit more than one script, please submit each as a separate entry.