United States Peace Corps Volunteer Jobs – Community Health Educator

Job Title: Community Health Educator (Volunteer Jobs)

Organisation: United States Peace Corps

Duty Station: Kampala, Uganda

About US:

The Peace Corps is an agency of the United States Government, which sends American Volunteer development workers to assist in capacity building and technical assistance activities in over 70 countries worldwide. The United States has enjoyed diplomatic relations with Uganda for over 30 years. Ambassador Natalie E. Brown currently heads the U.S Mission to Uganda. The Mission is composed of several offices and organizations all working under the auspices of the Embassy and at the direction of the Ambassador. Among the offices operating under the U.S Mission to Uganda are:

United States Agency for International Development (USAID)
Centers for Disease Control
Peace Corps

About Project:

The Health Project contributes to the Uganda Government Ministry of Health strategic plan to address some of the most pressing health needs of the country. Guided by the United States President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and Uganda Health Sector Strategic Plan, Community Health Specialists will contribute to Peace Corps Uganda Health goal of “Ending preventable child deaths and achieving a resilient and healthy generation of youth by 2030.”

Job Summary: Volunteers collaborate with community members and their host organizations to identify community needs and implement appropriate activities. Volunteers will play the role of catalyst for a wide range of activities, guided by the health project framework.

Key Duties and Responsibilities:

Promote Maternal, Neonatal and Child Health

Formation and facilitation of a series of Care Groups interventions with leader parents to promote essential maternal and child health best practices, including malaria prevention, immunization, water sanitation and hygiene, and child nutrition.

Support Orphans and Other vulnerable Children (ages 0–17)

Co-facilitate groups for OVC and their caregivers with evidence-based interventions and training in nutrition education, psychosocial support, economic strengthening, life skills, HIV-positive living, and linkages to health or social services.
Co-facilitate sessions with subject experts on HIV prevention, life skills and mentorship, stigma and discrimination reduction.

Youth and HIV

Formation and facilitation of youths’ sexual reproductive health and other health-related interventions including menstrual hygiene management, HIV-prevention education, and referral to HIV testing services and community linkages.
Co-facilitate HIV prevention evidence-based activities for health, targeting in and out-of-school youth in partnership with Grassroots Soccer.

Capacity Building

Conduct trainings to improve skills of community health service providers and/or school staff to improve essential healthcare to the targeted populations.
Coach and/or mentor community health service providers and/or school staff to improve their skills in essential elements of youth friendly and gender-equitable health services.
Community mobilization and sensitization for uptake of health services and early health seeking behaviors.
Community-level health training and education for social and behavior change.

Peace Corps Uganda promotes gender awareness and girls’ education and empowerment. For all the technical activities, Volunteers design interventions with a “gender lens.” Volunteers receive training on gender challenges and can implement gender-related activities that are contextually appropriate. As part of their work, Volunteers will also report on these efforts and their impact every quarter. Volunteers invited to this project are expected to work as professionals and will be periodically evaluated as such.

Following the impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic, health volunteers will contribute to the global fight against COVID-19 by leveraging its unique structure and reach to complement interagency and host country efforts to accelerate widespread and equitable access to and delivery of safe and effective COVID-19 vaccinations.

COVID-19 Volunteer Activities: As a Volunteer, you will be trained in how to best protect yourself from COVID-19 exposure and understand the impact of and steps to reduce stigma related to COVID-19. You may also have the opportunity to engage with your community on implementing or enhancing COVID-19 mitigation activities, such as COVID-19 prevention and risk reduction strategies including social distancing, hand washing, mask wearing, addressing myths and misconceptions related to these practices, and vaccine hesitancy. Activities will be tailored to address the COVID-19 circumstances in the communities where you will serve.

Qualifications, Skills and Experience:

Qualified candidates will have an expressed interest in working in the health sector and one or more of the following criteria:

Bachelor of Arts/Bachelor of Science degree in any field

Five years of professional work experience

Desired Skills

The most successful candidates will have a background or experience in one of the following:

Community mobilization and sensitization on behavior change activities.
Small groups formation and facilitation skills.
Planning, organizational, interpersonal and communication skills.
Working with children aged 0-17 or youth aged 12-19 and above.
HIV prevention, care and support for children, youth, and adults infected or affected by HIV.
Basics of working with children.
Basics in maternal and child health promotion activities.
Designing various behavior change health interventions that aim at promoting positive healthy practices among individuals and communities.
Designing integrated health activities including COVID- 19 prevention interventions and work with communities to increase demand creation for COVID-19 vaccination.

Required Language Skills: There are no pre-requisite language requirements for this position.

How to Apply:

All candidates who wish to join United States Peace Corps in this voluntary position should apply online at the link below.

Click Here

Deadline: 1^st January 2024