Witness the following horrific string of events:

I know it isn’t pretty and I hope that I haven’t ruined anyone’s lunch hour. The Christian Science Monitor has an article about the puppets of “No Strings,” and that organization’s mission to teach the children of Afghanistan about the dangers of landmines:

“Bang!” The little puppet boy steps on a mine, and now he only has one leg. The Afghan children watching the video at a school on a Kabul hillside gasp.

Puppets have long been used to entertain and to teach children basic lessons such as how to count and the letters of the alphabet

“The Story of the Little Carpet Boy,” loosely based on Pinocchio, is the brainchild of No Strings International, a British charity set up to reach children in war-torn areas and teach them vital life lessons through puppetry.

“It’s hard to get a crowd of children to listen to an adult, but the minute you bring a puppet out, kids just light up,” says Johnie McGlade, founder of No Strings.

Mr. McGlade worked for more than a year with two of Muppet-creator Jim Henson’s original team, Kathy Mullen and Michael Frith, to create a culturally sensitive film using characters from Afghan folklore to teach children about the dangers of minefields.

About 60 Afghans a month are killed or injured by mines and unexploded ordnance around the country, and almost half of them are under 18 years old, according the United Nations Mine Action Center for Afghanistan (UNMACA). [Link]

For those of you wondering, here is the background on the story pictured above:

The storyteller rides in on Jaladul, a fine beast of burden, who later in the story, becomes the guide to Chuchi Qhalin, the carpet boy. After all her family have been killed by war and landmines, a grandmother makes herself a new grandson from the carpets she weaves. One of the doves she regularly feeds, turns into a fairy who gives life to the carpet boy.

Worried that he too will lost to landmines, the grandmother sends him to the village head who tries to show Chuchi the dangers of landmines and UXO’s (unexploded Ordinance) using the red hand to reinforce the STOP message. Chuchi then goes off to school accompanied by his guide, Jaladul. On his way he meets up with temptation and looses his legs which get replaced with kitchen utensils. During a flash flood he finds his grandmother and they get washed down river along with loads of landmines. Chuchi now remembers what he had been told and they get out safely. The fairy rewards Chuchi by turning him into a real boy. [Link]

The show has been a hit with the children of course and people are beginning to wonder if puppets can count as “boots on the ground” in our efforts to combat the opium trade as well:

“I liked the film,” says Masiha, an 11-year-old girl who watched the film’s first screening in Kabul, “and I learned that you should stay away from fields that have red stones. There are mines there. I didn’t know that before,”

She also liked the film’s happy ending in which Chuche is granted his wish to become a real boy and gets his limbs back.

No Strings is now looking into using the puppet characters to make another video on the dangers of drug use in Afghanistan, which is the world’s No. 1 producer of opium and heroin.[Link]

In other puppet news, Manish recently blogged about Horn Ok Please, an Irish-Indian animated short featuring puppets which will be playing at the IAAC Film Festival in New York in November:

HORN OK PLEASE follows a momentous day in the life of a hapless Bombay taxi driver who strives to earn enough rupees to buy the air-conditioned car of his dreams
As the day progresses, his goal seems within reach; however the traffic, the exasperating passengers and the pre-monsoon heat take their toll as he starts to show signs of weakness… [Link]

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p>South Asian puppets are hot right now.

Update: Sorry folks, I just realized that the short-film may be clay-mation and not puppets. Oh well. If anyone checks it out let us know what you think.