Kenya: Child Protection Officer

Organization: Heshima Kenya

Country: Kenya

Closing date: 18 May 2016

Program : Child Protection

Term: Six Months Contract

Position Description:

Heshima Kenya is a nonprofit organization based in Nairobi, Kenya dedicated to identifying, protecting refugee children and empowering unaccompanied and separated refugee children, especially adolescent girls, through our specialized shelter, education and advocacy programs. The Child Protection Officer will carry out Child Protection program activities within the urban refugee programs funded by UNHCR. The officer will be responsible for the overall management, planning, assessing and implementing of the Program and will report directly to the Senior Program Manager

Responsibilities:

• Oversee overall management, planning, implementation and monitoring of Heshima Kenya’s Child Protection activities in the urban areas.


• Prioritize child protection issues and design prevention and response initiatives.


• Provide technical guidance and direction for effective planning, implementation and monitoring of Child Protection activities including the psychosocial support and legal support to vulnerable children and their families.


• Develop monitoring and reporting mechanisms i.e. formal data collection for advocacy, qualitative and quantitative data for program development and information for donor reports.


• Represent Heshima Kenya in meetings with UNHCR, Government of Kenya official meetings, Children’s Department, Department of Refugee Affairs, Technical working group meetings and with other stakeholders.


• Develop training tools and materials for child protection interventions and assist in capacity building for staff and partners, in priority areas such as Child Rights, Prevention of Violence against Children, SGBV, Psychosocial support, family tracing and family re-unification and care for unaccompanied and separated children.


• Ensure implementation of quality Rights-based Child Protection activities.


• Implement result -based approaches.


• Ensure child-friendly procedures are mainstreamed in all programmatic interventions related to SGBV and other protection programs.


• Support grant writing process and identify new funding opportunities and new technical partnerships.


• Develop multi-year strategic planning for the Child Protection program.


• Develop effective systems for supervision and monitoring of children and community structures.


• Prepare and compile program reports bi -weekly, monthly and quarterly and submit to the Senior Program Manager.


• Lead a team of staff in the child protection department across multiple site locations in various urban areas.

Qualifications:

• Degree in Humanitarian Affairs, social sciences, Development Studies or Counseling Psychology.


• At least three years professional experience working with vulnerable children, refugee minors, or children at-risk.


• Three years supervision/ management experience required.


• Able to effectively and respectfully handle conflicts, exhibit excellent communicator skills.


• Knowledge of refugee related issues in Kenya, especially children.


• Fluent in English and Swahili.


• Excellent interpersonal skills; can work independently and as part of a team.


• Must be highly organized, creative, detail oriented and work effectively under pressure with competing priorities.


• Excellent data-collection, organizational and time management skills.


• Experience in implementation and monitoring of programs.


• Ability to identifying gaps in child protection services and within the given context informs a holistic protection response for children.


• Strong cross-cultural communication and resilience skills are very important.


• Experience in supervising and mentoring other staff.


• Able to establish and maintain effective working relations with people of different cultural backgrounds and be a team player.Proven experience in writing reports.


• Proven experience in proposal writing.


• Proficient in Microsoft office Software and using the internet as a resource.


• Have Certificate of Good Conduct.


• Must be a Kenyan citizen.


• Previous experience working with Refugees and children.

How to apply:

APPLICATION INSTRUCTIONS:

Send your application letter and a detailed CV with daytime telephone contact by email to:

The Country Director, Heshima Kenya. P.O Box 63192-00619. Nairobi/ Email: hr2015@heshimakenya.org with a cc to info@heshimakenya.org indicating in the subject the position applied for.

Deadline for applications is 18^th May 2016

Note that only shortlisted applicants will be conducted and any form of canvassing will lead to automatic disqualification