Project MHPSS Officer – SOS Children’s Villages Ethiopia
Development and Project Management, Health Care
SOS Children’s Villages Ethiopia
SOS Children's Villages is the largest non-governmental, non-political, non-denominational charitable child welfare organisation in the world. Its mission is to build families for children in need, help them shape their own futures and share in the development of their communities. The first SOS Children's Village was founded by Hermann Gmeiner in 1949 in Imst, Austria. He was committed to helping children in need,children who had lost their homes, their security and their families as a result of the Second World War. With the support of many donors and co-workers, the organisation has grown to help children all over the world.
Currently, SOS Children's Villages offers an effective alternative foster care through its services in the Alternative Child Care and Family & Community Development Programme Units in 134 countries and territories around the world. It also supports educational programmes and medical centres and it is active in the field of child protection and child rights.
SOS Children's Villages started to work in Ethiopia in 1974 with the opening of the first SOS Children's Village in Mekelle. Currently, we are operating in Ethiopia in six regions namely Harari, Tigray, Amhara, Sidama, Somali and Oromia. In addition, we operate in two city administrations: Addis Ababa & Dire Dawa. SOS Children’s Villages Programme work towards its vision of a world where, “every child belongs to a family and grows with love, respect and security”. For the past 44 years, we have been working to build families for children in need, help them shape their own future and share in the development of their communities. Everything we do is based on the best interest of the child. We help vulnerable families care for their children, and we work to prevent the breakdown of parental care. When children lose their own parental care, we provide quality alternative care. We support young people in their efforts to become independent adults and succeed in life.
Who we are
SOS Children’s Villages Ethiopia is an International Non-governmental organization and a member of SOS Children’s Villages International Federation. We started our humanitarian work in Ethiopia with the opening of our first Village in Mekelle, Northern part of Ethiopia in 1974. Since then, we have expanded our programs to different regions where there are significant needs for intervention and where we believe we can work in partnership with all relevant actors to bring sustainable positive outcomes for children’s and young people.
Today, we have grown significantly to meet the persistent challenges that confront Ethiopian children who have lost parental care and those that are at risk of losing their parental care. Working in close collaboration with international donors, local government and community based organizations across seven program locations; we aspire that every child grows up with love, respect and security.
Why we need you?
We are looking for MHPSS Officer who will be responsible to plan and provide comprehensive and integrated psychological, emotional, and protection social services for the most needy and affected population. Moreover, the holder is responsible for mapping available services for children at risk and working closely with other SOS Children’s Village staff and other relevant governmental and non-governmental organizations. In general, he/she should contribute to the overall result of the improvement of affected people mental, psychological, and emotional and protection needs of minors and other people at risk of abuse
What we provide?
An amazing work environment that promotes personal growth through providing professional space to grow and advance your career!
Your role?
As a Project MHPSS Officer, you will be in charge of the following:
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Assess MHPSS and protection needs and identify vulnerabilities and risks in the project implementation areas at both the health facility and community levels.
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Implement MHPSS & protection activities and provide psychological consultation on regular bases.
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Conduct regular awareness-raising sessions with target communities
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Assist in building and maintaining relationships with School community, SOS youth, SOS children and staff.
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Responsible for the day-to-day implementation of MHPSS activities in the project implementation areas
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Identify elements and changes in Child, youth & adult Psychology as the result of conflict such as playstyle changes and unhealthy emotion, grief, trauma, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.
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Provide appropriate information and level of vulnerability such as cases of Gender-Based Violence and child abuse for sectoral, holistic and need-based support
- Organize data and document the number of reported Gender-Based Violence, psychological and physical abuses, pregnancy-related complications, people with chronic illnesses and people with disabilities
- Develop methodologies and data collection techniques for assessments, indicators, program management, evaluations, and research related to MHPSS and Protection
- Support regular participatory activities with different groups of children, adolescents and youths to identify issues affecting children in their communities, and assist the teams to develop appropriate responses;
- Coordinate the designing of children, adolescents and youth and family assessments and psychometrics tools and supervise their administration.
- In cooperation with other Technical Advisors, ensure that the integrated MHPSS and protection activities implemented according to SOS CV and international standards.
- Responsible for the planning and implementation of MHPSS activities, closely monitoring, evaluating, reporting their development and flag potential issues on time.
- Supervise with humanitarian response co-workers of SOS Children’s Village and implement jointly planned activities to improve the mental health and welfare of target groups.
Child safeguarding
- Support humanitarian colleagues in the implementation of emergency programs and establishment of recovery programming
- Organize discussions on child protection risks, concerns with stakeholders, children and young persons on community members
- Strengthen the Child Safeguarding through creating awareness with the community leaders.
- Ensure adherence to SOS CV policies such as the Code of Conduct, Child Safeguarding Standards and others as well as the minimum standards of humanitarian relief
- Ensure that all support is provided in the best interest of the child.
- Responsible to take part in awareness-raising sessions and capacity building training in relation to CS and Code of Conduct and to protect children and young people from all forms of abuse, abandonment, exploitation, violence and discrimination
- Support children and young people to make them understand the CS risks and protection mechanisms
- Responsible to report any Child Safeguarding suspicion, concern, allegation or incident immediately, following Child Safeguarding reporting procedures. Child Safeguarding reports should be made to the CS team at program level and/or to National Child Safeguarding Advisor
Must Criteria
- Education: BSc degree in Psychology, Social work, Nursing and Sociology or related field with at least 4 years of counselling, Trauma healing and social work experience at NGO
- Who have experience of working in trauma healing process
- Who have experience in play therapy services or practices
- Who have certificate in MHPSS training/ Trauma healing skill training
- Experience: At least 3 years of experience in MHPSS/ Trauma healing practice /counseling or working with highly vulnerable children who lost their parents or are unaccompanied
- Exprience in community-based child protection approaches
- Experience and ability to work in humanitarian or emergency context
Competencies – Knowledge, Skills, Abilities
- Ability to analyze protection issues, and risks and organize timely responses.
- In-depth knowledge and experience of mental health and psychosocial interventions in a humanitarian response context, tailored to care for Gender-Based Violence is essential.
- Additional training on issues of mental health, trauma healing and psychosocial support.
- Report writing skill
- Should be honest, ready to continuously learn, inclusive, result oriented & initiated to work
- Ease of using computers with mastery on application soft wares such as MS Work, MS Windows, and MS Excel.
- Proficiency in English language (both in writing and speaking)
- NGO experience is advantageous