Psychosocial Support/Child Protection Specialist Job Vacancy In Uganda

Job Title: Psychosocial Support/Child Protection Specialist

Posting Date: 01/13/2011

Deadline Date: 01/24/2011

Starting Date: 06/01/2011

Description:
The Bantwana Initiative of World Education, Inc. seeks candidates for a PSS/Child Protection Specialist in Uganda pending award of a cooperative agreement from USAID/Uganda to reduce the vulnerability and improve the well-being of Uganda's orphans and other vulnerable children. The PSS/Child Protection Specialist will serve as the lead technical person for interventions to improve access and quality of psychosocial support, child protection and legal support, and guidance and counseling services to in- and out-of-school orphans and other vulnerable children (OVC) and their households. The PSS/Child Protection Specialist will play a critical role in designing psychosocial support and child protection activities and leading capacity building and training of partners, including government line ministries, NGOs/CBOs/FBOs, schools, community groups, law enforcement and other stakeholders.

The Project will focus on areas including:

1) Improve the socio-economic status of OVC households with a comprehensive and family focused package for their survival, growth, development and participation in the community;

2) Promote and provide child protection and legal services to OVC and their households; and

3) Strengthen delivery of integrated, quality social services to the OVC and their households through community based response systems.
RESPONSIBILITIES
Technical lead for program psychosocial support and child protection activities, and youth protection and resilience building component and interventions, and integrating this component with other project components;

Develop and implement interventions to improve access and quality of counseling, guidance and early child hood development services to OVC;

Improve the capacity of partners to understand child protection issues and uphold children s rights;

Working closely with school committees and traditional structures, engage and mobilize communities around the issue of children s rights to protect vulnerable children, especially in abuse prevention and protection of land rights;

Incorporate child rights into other program areas;

Collaborate with other technical staff to develop programming for safer school and health care environments for adolescents, especially girls;

Ensure program provides a platform for children to express their ideas and opinions on their rights and responsibilities through child participation;

Oversee development of relevant counseling and psychosocial curricular and training materials to help build capacity of various target groups;

Establish and extend community-based referral networks to ensure OVC requiring therapy and additional/specialized counseling and clinical services and caregivers have access to essential health, HIV and AIDS services;

Oversee improvement of and expansion of provision of in-school counseling services;

Work with providers and program staff to develop quality of care indicators related to counseling and psychosocial support;

Keep abreast of new work in technical areas and disseminate new knowledge to program staff;

Collaborate with other program staff to ensure timely delivery of products and regular reporting; and

Advocate and promote scale-up of best practices in- and out-of-school school counseling, peer education, and psychosocial support services.
QUALIFICATIONS
Degree in social work, counseling, public health, social sciences or related field;

Minimum 5 years technical experience in community development and HIV/AIDS mitigation, specifically counseling services, and youth empowerment to reduce abuse;

Demonstrated technical expertise in and community-based psychosocial support, identifying and working with children with problematic behaviors or learning difficulties and guidance and counseling materials development;

Demonstrated technical expertise in developing and facilitating psychosocial support and early childhood development training to participants with limited educational backgrounds;

Knowledge of key HIV and AIDS community-based interventions;

Sound knowledge and experience in child protection, particularly around OVC;

Excellent reporting skills capturing qualitative outcomes of an integrated care and support OVC program;

Knowledge of pediatric HIV care issues and effective interventions to reach children living with and/or impacted by HIV;

Excellent interpersonal, teamwork, communications, and supervisory skills;

Extensive experience in Uganda and/or Southern Africa;

Good English language skills required.

Salary commensurate with experience.


WEI is an Equal Opportunity, Affirmative Action Employer committed to workplace diversity. Women and minority candidates are encouraged to apply. M/F/H/V/D

How to Apply

Interested candidates should submit their resumes and cover letters online by 01/24/2011 to

Christina Stellini at cstellini@worlded.org