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Sesame Street has always been about inclusiveness. And it will be even more so on May 21 (assuming the world does not end as scheduled) when Nigerian Kids are introduced to Kami, an inquisitive female Muppet living with HIV.

She's on the left.

According to MTV Canada reporter Aliya-Jasmine Sovani,

"Nigerian Sesame Street (Sesame Square) will address the biggest challenges faced by Nigerians…in addition to HIV/AIDS, also religion, gender inequality, AND Malaria. In one episode muppet ZOBI gets caught up in a mosquito net to teach kids how to use them and prevent a malaria infection because according to the World Health Organization, a child dies from the disease every 45 seconds."

Zobi, by the way, is an African version of Cookie Monster — except that he craves yams.

Kudos to Sesame Street for continuing to address uncomfortable issues that kids nonetheless have to deal with (I still remember when Mr. Hooper died). Although I was a little disappointed when they caved to uptight parental pressures on the bouncy Katy Perry musical number.