Shankar
Kit

Also see Champa kit | Adolescence guidebook

This package addresses adolescent boys and young men. It acknowledges their interests and tries to show alternative ways to address their problems and bring about some attitudinal change.

As a teaching aid, the Shankar Kit helps health workers, educators and other development workers to disseminate information on issues that concern adolescent boys and young men and promote male responsibility.

The kit attempts to help boys, through their growing up years, to become men, real men.
It attempts to be a friend and guide to help them make more informed decisions about their lives.

About the kit

The kit is based on a story, the central characters of which are a fourteen-year-old boy called Shankar and his 23-year-old friend, philosopher and guide Monida. The story deals with issues related to self-esteem, puberty, respect for women, conception, contraception, family spacing, STDs/HIV/AIDS, sterility, impotency, adoption and most importantly, male responsibility. The story is presented through three flip charts. The key issues covered in the flip charts are highlighted and explained in the Little Curiosity Books and through activities detailed out in the workbook.

Each of the three flip charts, along with the associated activities and Little Curiosity Books, forms a module. Thus the kit has three modules. Each is self-sufficient and can be used either singly or in sequence with the other modules. The sequence of issues covered are :

Puberty and adolescence
Contraception, safe sex and STDs/HIV/AIDS
Conception, pregnancy and family spacing

The story and the aids/activities were conceived and developed after extensive research, analysis and field-testing conducted by Thoughtshop Foundation in collaboration with Child In Need Institute. Though the kit has been developed for adolescent boys and young men in Bengal, it can be adapted for other languages as well. It is available In Hindi and Bengali.

What the Shankar Kit Contains

Double sided cloth Poster

Side A introduces the kit by talking about self esteem and male responsibility. Side B introduces the different body systems.

Download English
Shankar Poster (pdf, 0.9 MB)

Card game

A set of 52 playing cards and a reference card. The game serves as an ice-breaking exercise. It helps the educator to initiate discussions on social and health issues in the context of reproductive health and male responsibility.

Flipchart One: Shankar and his friends find out
how to be a true man

8.5" X 10.5",11 pages, spiral bound with full colour illustrations

This flip chart gives insight into one of the major pre occupations of adolescent boys i.e. interest in girls and how to impress them. This serves as a tool to attract their attention and then channel the discussion into other issues such as changes during puberty, mental and physical differences between boys and girls, hygiene and most importantly, respect for women.

Download English
ARH_SH_EN_1.pdf (2.8 MB)

Flipchart Two: Shankar and his friends find out
about being safe

Contraception, Safer Sex, STDs/HIV/AIDS

8.5" X 10.5", 10 pages, spiral bound with full colour illustrations

This flip chart focuses on responsible male sexual behaviour. In this context it talks about issues such as premarital sex, unwed motherhood, abortion, contraception, safer sex and STDs/HIV/AIDS.

Download English
ARH_SH_EN_2.pdf (2.2 MB)

Flipchart Three: Shankar and his friends learn
the secret of happy families

8.5" X 10.5", 8 pages, spiral bound with full colour illustrations

This flip chart deals with the roles and responsibilities of a married man. In this context it facilitates discussion about issues such as the role of husband during pregnancy, sex determination, family spacing, impotency, sterility and responsible fatherhood.

Download English
ARH_SH_EN_3.pdf (1.7 MB)

Little Curiosity Books 1,2 and 3

3 volumes: 20, 28 and 20 pages

A series of 3 illustrated booklets with answers to over 100 questions that young people frequently ask about growing up. Boys can refer to these themselves, or have questions and answers read aloud in small groups.

The questions were selected from those asked by boys through letters to the ASK column, calls to the ASKline and at ASK counselling sessions.

Download Hindi
Koutuhali set (pdf, 2 MB)

Male reproductive system model

Plastic 8.5" X 10.5"

This is a model with moving sections, transparent tubing and detachable parts that can be fitted back easily. It is used to understand the structure and functions of the male reproductive organs.

Conception model

Plastic 7" X 11.5"

This is a 2 piece plastic model with male and female parts that fit together. A spare set of black and white beads come with the model. It is used to demonstrate how conception takes place and how the sex of a child is determined.

Family Spacing Board Game

The game consists of a triangular board, a number dice, playing counters and a special age dice. The game helps recap of the issues discussed in the third flipchart and Little Curiosity Book related to spacing children.

Take-home Leaflets, M&E forms

These are not part of the regular kit, because they need to be produced separately considering number of participants involved in the programme.

These are optional reminders that can be handed to each young participant at the end of the workshop. They contain the summary of key messages from the flipcharts, as well some questions on each chapter. The participants are guided to personalise their leaflets by writing down their thoughts and answers.

Download
ARH handout A4 (pdf 800 KB)

Baseline-Endline En/Hn (pdf 151 KB)

Workbook and Instruction Manual

The manual contains instructions to help educators make best use of the kit. The workbook has easy to use activities to help understand and recap the concepts being discussed (last updated in 2007)

The new English version (2011) comprises instructions for both the Shankar and the Paro / Champa kits.

Download
Shankar Manual Hindi (pdf. 527 Kb)
Champa/Shankar Manual English (pdf. 3 Mb)