The Save the Children Fund, commonly known as Save the Children, was established in the United Kingdom in 1919 to improve the lives of children through better education, health care, and economic opportunities, as well as providing emergency aid in natural disasters, war, and other conflicts. After passing a century, which it celebrated in 2019, it is now a global movement made up of 29 national member organizations which work in 120 countries.

Role Purposes:

The MHPSS Officer will play a vital role in the implementation of community led services through strengthening individual and group counselling activities, coaching of peer educators on lay counselling and capacitating People to identify needs among their community and learn how to deal with and manage problems and challenges at a community level.

The MHPSS Officer will be responsible for carrying out trainings on Mental Health and psychological support and emotional resilience for front line health workers, orient community and religious leaders, Health Development armies and Health extension workers. S/he will be expected to work in collaboration with the district health offices, local stakeholders, and partners for effective implementation of the project activities. In addition, the position holder will also be expected to provide supervision, technical assistance and capacity building to health extension workers and health workers in health facilities.

She/he will be responsible to strengthening of early identification, diagnosis, treatment and referral linkage of women subjected to Gender based violence. The project officer will work on development of monitoring plan with MEAL department, PDQ team and partners and assess progress on quarterly basis. He/she will provide project progress reports as per the donor requirement as well as whenever needed by the area office, country office or the donor, to keep the donor informed on implementation progress.

MHPSS officer will closely work with Women and Children Affairs, Labor and social Affairs, education office and other relevant government offices and stakeholders at woreda level to jointly implement, monitor and support coordination. The project officer will represent SCI at external forums/meetings at woreda level as required in consultation with the project coordinator to position the achievements of the project that he/she is responsible for.

KEY AREAS OF ACCOUNTABILITY

Essential duties and responsibilities

• Implementation of the activities according to the logical framework: counselling, identify GBV cases, creating links with similar organization and partners working on MHPSS, training, IEC tools etc.
• Assess SGBV needs, their personal situation and, strengths in order to develop plans to improve their well-being.
• Determines the state of wellbeing of the SGBV situation by interviewing the client; assessing psychological, emotional, and social information; making on-site visits.
• Coaches and supervises peer educators in their community-based activities (lay counselling &support \group sessions) at project sites in coordination with Community worker.
• Co-designs and co-animates psychosocial and recreational and group activities with the beneficiaries and the DIC (Drop in Centre) officer at the Kembata zone Doyogena DIC. Those activities aim to create awareness about MH and psychological needs and develop positive copying mechanisms, self-care and community care practices and promote positive self-esteem.
• Offers individual counselling for cases self-referred or referred by the PE (Peer Educator) or health care providers at the DIC in Doyogena and the different program sites.
• Supports the DIC psychosocial activities e.g. individual counselling, group counselling sessions or support groups for special needs e.g. PLHIV or GBV survivors, risk reduction sessions.
• Organizes, facilitates and conducts specific trainings on GBV issues/MHPSS/PFA for SGBV & health care workers according to the needs.
• Obtains assistance for health workers by referring them to community resources; arranging for appointments; establishing rapport with other agencies.
• Maintains records of cases by documenting the beneficiaries’ situation and owns actions, adhering to data protection regulations.
• Monitors planned actions through regular follow-up.
• Maintains strict confidentiality of FSWs’ personal information receiving PSS services.
• Contributes to the team effort by accomplishing interrelated results as needed.
• Follows up with beneficiaries to ensure that their situations and wellbeing has progressed.
• Participates in coordination meetings at field level.
• Reports on MHPSS activities in the monthly progress activities report.
• Performs any other task assigned by the field coordinator.
• Participates in demand creation activities to increase service utilization.
• Collects and documents testimonies from SGBV,  on their vital experiences

Planning and Reporting:

• In close collaboration with woreda Women and Children offices and health office prepare annual and quarters action plan and ensures timely submission at the respective sub city and woredas
• Provide follow-up and technical support for woreda women and Children office ensure preparation of timely and quality quarterly and annual project progress reports on the prepared formats
• Compile monthly, quarterly, Bi-annual, annual plan and reports at the respective woreda level and ensures timely submission for Child Protection Project Coordinator.
• Prepare compiled monthly, quarterly and annual plan and report of the project for relevant government bodies at their respective woreda level and ensures timely submission in consultation with immediate supervisor

Major Responsibilities:

• Provide technical support on emotional resilience and participate in carrying out all components of MHSSP packages
• Ensure establishment of one stop center and clinical rape management for GBV survives (documentations of injuries, treatment of injuries, evaluation of sexually transmitted infections (STI) and preventive care
• Coordinate screening, identification counseling, treatment and referral linkage of women subjected to violence
• Ensure the establishment of women- centered health response for women who have subjected to violence (PSEA, SGBV)
• Ensure community engagement prevention discrimination subjected to violence and prevention of sexual exploitations and abuse

Coordination and Management of Projects Implementation

• Ensure the project is implemented in always responsive to teachers, the community, and children in line with Save the Children principles, values and strategic plan and following Save the Children.
• Ensures integration of activities of government stakeholders and the project and strengthen collaboration at sub city and woreda level
• Identify gaps and provide technical and capacity building support for all stakeholders and Woreda Women and Children office.
• In close collaboration with the Child Protection Project Coordinator and officer, Women and Children office, Labor and Social Affairs, health office and other government stakeholders, facilitate on time implementation of the project activities based on the action plan and ensure implementation quality
• Ensure active participation of women, children and other stakeholders in the project activities implementation

Other

• Represent the SCI in the woreda child protection forums/meetings on areas related to the project, as required.
• In cooperation with Immediate Supervisor and PDQ Learning and Knowledge Management, ensure proper documentation of experiences and lessons learned from projects under supervision.
• In cooperation with communications team, provide information and inputs to be used for SCI Child Protection information and communication materials.
•  Provides inputs to the as requested through conducting quick needs assessments and general information related to MHPSS in the area to inform new program development.
• Performs other related activities as assigned by immediate supervisor.

Capacity Building

• In collaboration with the Project staff and government stakeholders’ staff, identify gaps and facilitate capacity building training and other support for government stakeholders and the community and other stakeholders
• Arrange experience sharing media among beneficiaries and other stakeholders
• Ensure that the required appropriate technical support is provided for all government structures on time and strengthen team spirit and collaborative work

MINIMUM QUALFICATION, EXPEREINCE, COMPETENCIES

Required Qualifications:

• Education: BSc in Clinic nurse, Midwifery, Clinical psychologies, Health officer

Required Experience:

• Two years’ relevant experience for degree holders and four years of experience for Diploma holders.
• Additional certificate on, SGBV, GBV, MHPSS and clinical rape management is an asset.
• Experience MHPSS, GBV with NGOs working in the area clinical rape management, emotional resilience’s for front line health workers, women centre in emergency health response prevention of sexual exploitations
• With proven experience in supervising, coaching and mentoring.
• Knowledge and understanding of community-based child protection mechanisms, national protection systems, and technical knowledge on child protection monitoring and evaluation
• Highly developed interpersonal and communication skills including influencing, negotiation and coaching
• Strong results orientation, with the ability to challenge existing mind-sets
• Good experience in planning, coordinating and implementing work activities
• Very good skill in report writing
• Child rights programming and Rights based approach to development;
• Facilitation and communication skills, etc.
• Willingness to work and travel in often difficult environments
• Fluency in English, both verbal and written, required
• Knowledge of Local language
• Qualified female candidates are highly encouraged to apply.
• Commitment to Save the Children values.

SKILLS AND BEHAVIOURS (our Values in Practice)

Accountability:

• Holds self-accountable for making decisions, managing resources efficiently, achieving and role modelling Save the Children values.
• Holds the team and partners accountable to deliver on their responsibilities – giving them the freedom to deliver in the best way they see fit, providing the necessary capacity to improve performance and applying appropriate measures when results are not achieved.

Ambition:

• Sets ambitious and challenging goals for himself/herself (and their team).
• Takes responsibility for his/her own personal actions and encourages others to do the same.
• Widely shares his/her personal vision for Save the Children, engages and motivates others
• Future orientated, thinks strategically

Collaboration:

• Builds and maintains effective relationships, his/her team, colleagues, members and external partners and supporters
• Values diversity, sees it as a source of competitive strength.
• Approachable, good listener, easy to talk to.

Creativity:

• Develops and encourages new and innovative solutions.
• Willing to take disciplined risks

Integrity:

• Honest, encourages openness and transparency
• Assists in the processing of advance requests and follow on the retirement of such advances.

KNOWLEDGE SKILLS AND ABILITY

• Strong training skill
• Willingness and ability to dramatically change work practices, flexibility in working long hours and ability to work with incoming surge teams;
• Excellent interpersonal, communication and presentation skills;
• Fluency in written and spoken English;
• Commitment to Save the Children values
• Teams, in the event of emergencies