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pictorial games to catalyze change... that's what we create

HOW GAMES WORK

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PLAY is the mind's natural way to learn
GAMES are the containers of learning
1Games are for experiential learning

Games help learners to work through structured experiences together, within the safety of play and imagination. Games involve simulated characters and situations. They offer opportunities to reflect on choices and consequences. These come in handy when participants face similar situations for real.

2Games are learner centered

Games serve marginalised or learning-challenged individuals particularly well. They are flexible, and use different ways of conveying ideas, so learners with different levels can use their own style of learning and progress at their own pace.

3Games are more engaging

Games use pictures, colours, graphics and other devices to attract and retain interest – especially when the group has low literacy skills or is comfortable in different languages.

4Games empower field trainers

Games are easier to facilitate, and are less intimidating than manuals. Game based tools give confidence to hesitant trainers, and enable them to raise difficult issues effectively.

5Games reduce hierarchy

Games enable educators to play at an equal level while still providing facilitation. As soon as a game begins, the traditional hierarchy of the classroom or family is set aside; a useful educational dynamic since the educator or the parent is not likely to be around when the learner makes critical decisions in life.

6Games help open taboos

The relaxed atmosphere of games fosters positive participation. They create a safe space for listening and expression, sharing of ideas, fears, and questions. This makes it easier to address sensitive issues such as sexuality, violence and fundamentalism. Games help overcome the common barriers of discomfort and polarised emotions.

GAMES GALLERY

Click on the tiles for more details. These can be produced on demand for projects run by partners

Exploring My World
Life Skills kit
Laugh & Cry
Diversity kit
Sex & Gender Game
Gender toolkit
Ok or Not!
Storybox
Who am I?
Women's Economic Leadership kit
The boy who slept in class (film)
Champa kit
Shankar kit
Disability kit
Laws in Pictures Series
Child Rights Now kit
Land Rights toolkit
Safal Fasal kit
High Value Crops kit
My Land, My Water kit
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Exploring My World

Personalized Activity Books on Self Exploration

Audience: 10-13 years and 14-17 year olds

Languages: English, Bangla

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Life Skills kit

Set of 18 situation cards and 6 guide cards exploring Communication with Parents, Peer Pressure, Assertiveness, Positive Thinking, Stress Management, Conflict Resolution

Audience: Adolescent girls and boys

Languages: English, Bengali, Hindi

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Laugh and Cry game

Board and Discussion Cards for sharing emotional experiences.

Audience: Children, Adolescents

Languages: English, Bengali

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Diversity Kit

Flipchart, Cards, Game exploring multiple identities, identity based stereotypes and conflicts

Audience: Youth, Community men and women

Languages: English, Urdu

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Sex & Gender game

Set pictorial playing cards to build basic gender understanding.

Audience: Children, Adolescents, Adults

Languages: English, Bengali

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Gender Toolkit

Comprehensive 10 session curriculum with 100 picture cards and a simplified manual to explore gender attitudes.

Audience: Adolescents, Men, Women

Languages: English, Bengali, Hindi

Partners: Oxfam EIO, Jumav Manch and Task Force

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Ok or Not!

Playway kit with picture tiles for discussion & monitoring of gender attitudes.

Audience: Community Groups

Languages: English, Hindi

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Storybox

Picture cubes to help imagine positive stories for girls.

Audience: Children, Adolescents, Adults

Languages: English, Hindi

Video [3 min] : Storybox

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Who Am I?

4 jigsaw sets, with facilitation guide, on women who have broken stereotypes: Kalpana Chawla, Mary Kom, Bachendri Pal, Kiran Bedi

Audience: Children, Adolescents, Adults

Languages: English, Bengali

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Womens Economic Leadership kit

Comprehensive playway workshop set with multiple games on gender in the context of womens' enterprises.

Audience: Community based women entrepreneur groups

Languages: English, Hindi

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Champa kit

Compendium of games, models and flipcharts exploring Adolescent Reproductive, Sexual Health and Rights.

Audience: Adolescent girls

Languages: English, Bengali, Hindi, +

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Shankar kit

Compendium of games, models and flipcharts exploring Adolescent Reproductive, Sexual Health and Rights.

Audience: Adolescent boys

Languages: English, Bengali, Hindi, +

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Disability kit

Picture Cards, and facilitators guide, exploring Myths & Rights of Persons with Disability.

Audience: Community Men and Women, Families of Persons living with Disability.

Languages: English, Bengali

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Laws in Pictures series

Series of pictorial booklets covering POCSO (child sexual abuse), Child Labour Act, Early & Child Marriage Prevention Act, Human Trafficking, Cyber safety

Audience: Adolescents, Adults

Languages: English, Bengali, Hindi

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Child Rights Now kit

Comprehensive playway tool with multiple games to explore Child Rights & Role of Youth.

Audience: Children, Adolescents, Adults

Languages: English, Bengali, Hindi

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Land Rights Toolkit

Comprehensive pictorial activity on Free Prior and Informed Consent, in the context of development and displacement.

Audience: Community men and women

Languages: English, Hindi, Oriya

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Safal Fasal kit

Comprehensive pictorial activity on high yield rice farming method adapted for specific rural regions.

Audience: Rural and Tribal women farming groups

Languages:English, Hindi

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High Value Crops kit

Pictorial activity on vegetable farming methods adapted for specific rural regions.

Audience: Rural and Tribal women farming groups

Languages:English, Hindi

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Our Land Our Water kit

Activity Book & accessories exploring water, sanitation and hygiene issues.

Audience: Children, Adolescents

Languages: English, Bengali, Hindi

GAMES BREAK BARRIERS

Conception Model, part of the Champa kit, being used by adolescents in Kolkata, India

Women's Economic Leadership (WEL) session with Community of Practitioners at Colombo, Srilanka

WEL business simulation game being tested with women leaders in Kiran, Batticaloa, Srilanka

Farm Entrepreneurs playing the extended WEL game in Patna, Bihar

Safal Fasal kit test and demo in Khunti, Jharkhand

Safal Fasal kit being used by women farmers.

Safal Fasal tools integrated with field training of Local Resource Persons.

Identities workshop in Yangon, with youth from all districts of Myanmar

Identities kit being used with community leaders in Pakistan

Identities session using I am One, I am Many kit in Manila, Philippines

Disability kit being used in Kolkata, India

Our Land Our Water workbook in schools, Tanzania

EVOLUTION

How we used Design Thinking to innovate since we started in 1994

1994
ASK Columns were monthly Q & A's published in a popular English daily to discuss sexuality and HIV/AIDS with young readers, who mailed their questions. This was the first time taboo issues were discussed openly in a public forum.
1995
20 issues of ASK were compiled as the ASK Booklet and launched at the Kolkata Bookfair. Thousands of copies sold over the years and later became a resource for our Peer Counselling Curriculum and Adolescent Reproductive health kits.
1995
The Champa kit was the first toolkit using Games to discuss Adolescent Reproductive Health with rural girls. For the first time, sex-ed was fun, not threatening; both for rural girls and the diffident 'barefoot' fieldworkers who would use the kit.
1996
As word of the Champa kit spread, organizations came forward to use it for their contexts. The Hindi version, Paro kit, was created for communities in Madhya Pradesh. The kit has been adapted into 7 languages and is still in production (2022).
1995 - 2013
HIV/AIDS was a rising concern through the 90's and the new millennium. We produced several multimedia communication products for specific audiences. Films like Aakrant, Suhana Safar, Disha, Shuru, are archived in our YouTube channel.
2000
Work on the Shankar kit, a sex-ed kit for boys, had begun soon after the Champa kit was published. Several tests later, we realized that it needed a Gendered approach. The re-designed kit has since reached an estimated one million boys.
2001
It's My Life was a unique toolkit using chemistry magic, audio plays, and games to discuss HIV/AIDS. The kit was widely used by youth and organizations and later became a central component of the Youth Awards for Social Initiatives.
2002
The WATSAN kit involved the creation of images around Water & Sanitation. We built on the PHAST methodology of using images to guide critical thinking. These principles would be used by many tools that followed.
2002
We worked with rural women in self help groups across West Bengal, in partnership with the Credit & Savings for Household Enterprise [CASHE] Project, to developed the SHG kit, a set of picture-stories and games to strengthen ledership in SHGs.
2003 - ongoing
The pictorial Gender toolkit was a result of a long partnership with Oxfam GB gender practitioners and grassroots leaders in jharkhand and Orissa. This seminal toolkit continues to be used by organisation across Indian and the region.
2004-2011
The We Can Campaign to End Violence against Women created 5 million changemakers across 6 South Asian countries. We led communications, in collaboration with partners across the region, and witnessed change at scale. Our tools were used by millions of users.
2009 - ongoing
Exploring My World is an activity book for young people on a journey of self discovery. The popularity of the first book encouraged us to we create variants for different age groups over the next few years. The series became an important part of our work with young people.
2009 - ongoing
No Marriage Now, a picture book on Child Marriage Prevention, was developed for UNICEF partners. This became the first of a series of popular pictorial booklets on laws relevant for kids.
2010 - ongoing
I am One, I am Many is a playway, non-threatening approach to discussing multiple identities, stereotypes and conflicts. During development, we got several opportunities to test this with youth leaders and field practitioners from South and South-East Asia.
2012
Working with persons with disability and activists at Indian Institute of Cerebral Palsy, we developed Lead-Ability, a pictorial toolkit on raising awareness on the rights of persons with disabilities. It helped us expand our pictorial language to include individuals with special needs.
2013 - 2020
Safal Fasal is a toolkit to enable women farmers to learn crucial steps of a new farming method adapted for higher yield at lower costs. This was for a programme to ensure food security of tribal communities across 8 states of India, led by Central India Initiatives (CinI)
2013 - 2018
The WEL kit is a play-way workshop kit created in collaboration with Oxfam GB, in response to the challenge raising the ambition of projects working on women's economic leadership. The kit was used across a range of developing countries including Srilanka, Philippines and India.
2014
The Land Rights tool is based on the Right to Free, Prior and Informed Consent. It was designed to be used by facilitators to empower tribal communities who have struggled to protect their way of life against forces that subscribe to a conflicting version of development.
2016 - 2019
Laws in Pictures booklets cover the basics of Indian laws that protect the rights of women and children, against Child Sexual Abuse, Domestic Violence, Child Labour, Trafficking, Cyber Safety. These are used by a range of grassroot organisations and communities in multiple languages.
2020
A series of pictorial and child-friendly Child Safeguarding Policy Posters were developed collaboratively for all grassroot organisations connected with the funding organisation DKA