Puppeteer Farooq Qaisar of Pakistan with Uncle Sargam. Farooq Qaisar, whose television puppet character Uncle Sargam has been a household personality in Pakistan for many years, took his puppets on the road because he wanted to reach rural communities that lacked access to television - and his primary audience was adults. His puppet shows taught them about oral rehydration and hygiene, and he found that puppets were acceptable to an adult audience where live actors would have met with disapproval. Farooq would receive letters from distant villages asking his troupe to come, and some of the shows were even hosted by a mullah, a Muslim cleric. Puppets are versatile Puppets share with actors the ability to perform in any setting and on any budget.
Puppets are equally at home in cities and villages.
They can perform in the street or in local theatres and convey messages on immunization, sanitation or nutrition with humour and style. Puppets can tour. With a van, a portable stage, some battery-powered amplifiers and a few humans along for the ride, they can travel even to those areas unreached by the mass media. In rugged rural places, puppets can journey strapped to the back of a donkey. This flexibility makes puppets ideal for working in the least developed countries, where innovative ways of reaching communities are desperately needed.