The man who created a number of characters for the popular puppet show ?The Muppets? ? Miss Piggy, Gonzo and Fozzie Bear ? is now pulling a few strings to keep Afghan children out of harm?s way.

Bermudian Michael Frith and his wife Kathy Mullen have formed a UK-registered charity called No-Strings International.

The charity has developed and produced a puppet video to raise awareness among children about landmines.

While both Mr. Frith and his wife live in Bermuda ? the Friths are a Bermudian family with some 400 years of history on the Island ? they came up with the idea for No Strings while in New York City after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.

?What can we do to be helpful, relevant and make a difference?? they asked themselves and their friends.

While mulling over ideas Ms Mullen received a call from her niece in London whose flatmate was an aid worker in Afghanistan.

Working on Afghan projects, the flat-mate John McGlade had gotten into the habit of taking his makeshift puppet ?Seamus? with him.

Seamus could ?bridge a language gap and breakdown barriers between people in a matter of seconds,? said Mr. McGlade on the No Strings website (www.no-strings.net).

As puppets were a natural fit for Ms Mullen and Mr. Frith ? who have almost 50 years experience as puppeteers between them ? the idea for No Strings International was sparked.

The charity has chosen to focus on landmine safety, HIV and AIDS education, health care and street kids ? these things are ?the blight of our day and age,? Mr. Frith said.

Puppets provide an ideal ?way to reach children with important messages?, he added.

Now the challenge was to develop their storyline to get those messages across.

?Through amazing chains of coincidence, my old friends from college put me in touch with Afghan Americans in New York and we all put together a curriculum,? Mr. Frith said. ?Out of all this grew an approach to a story.?

No Strings did not want to teach children in Afghanistan specific lessons similar to the style used on ?Sesame Street?.

?Storytelling is a powerful part of the Afghan tradition,? said Mr. Frith, so No Strings decided to follow a parable approach.

The first parable teaches children about the dangers of landmines and how and why to avoid them.

But in developing the story, the team thought it was important not terrify the children or further traumatise their audience by showing children stepping on mines and losing limbs.

But for the story to work the message that mines are dangerous had to get across.

?Children live in areas where they cannot take the cows out to pasture because of unexploded landmines, but they have to take the cows out to pasture,? Mr. Frith said.

To get the message across in a less horrific way, he and his wife had the idea of making the hero of their story a puppet who is alive, but is not a real boy ? in other words, like Pinocchio.

In the story there is an old grandmother whose whole family has died from war ? her real son has died from a landmine ? so she knits another son out of carpet.

?Carpet is an important part of life in Afghanistan,? Mr. Frith said.

ChucheQhalin, or little carpet boy ?comes to life, but is totally innocent?, he said.

Because he cannot absorb life lessons he loses his legs first and then an arm to landmines.

?He is made out of carpet and can be remade,? Mr. Frith said.

?By the end of the story he understands that children cannot be put back together and he is rewarded by becoming a real boy.?

Mr. Frith said No Strings had originally planned to take the puppets on tour ?in the back of a truck? in Afghanistan, but they did not have the funding for that.

So with the help of 12 students at the Eugene O?Neill puppet conference in Waterford, Connecticut, they put little carpet boy?s story on video.

To fully realise their dream of professionally producing the show and dubbing it into various languages so it can be shown around the underdeveloped world, they are now in the process of raising more funds.

?The adults have been at war for so long, that there are no teachers, no mentors, to teach children what their culture is about,? Mr. Frith said.

He said they dreamed ?of going to their countries and giving their culture back to them? but not like ?some kind of western imperialist?.

?When the children see the shows, they should have no idea where they come from, or that some guy who used to do the Muppet Show did them.

?They should feel like they have come organically out of the culture,? he said.