COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT OFFICER
VACANCY ANNOUNCEMENT:
Position: Community Engagement officer
Vacant positions: 1 Person
Type of contract: One-year renewable
Location: AGHR Head Office with frequent field visits
Report to: AGHR Executive Director
Deadline: 31st January 2024
Starting Time: February 2024
About Association Générale des Handicapés du Rwanda (AGHR) :
AGHR was established on 30th December 1979 and governed by the Law No 04/2012 of 17/02/2012 regulating national NGOs in Rwanda. AGHR initial constitution has been revised to conform to provisions of the above law and has been given a Certificate of compliance No 114/07 issued on 06th June 2013 by the Rwanda Governance Board (RGB)
AGHR interventions are centered on advocacy, promotion of disability rights, inclusion and socio-economic well-being of persons with disabilities. Its vision is “Become the leader organization in protecting and promoting the rights of persons with disabilities in Rwanda.” While its mission is “Organizing people with disabilities without any distinction based on type of disability, into a strong and effective voice likely to bring social and economic positive change and to improve their living conditions.” AGHR operate under five key intervention areas which are education, health, livelihood and social economic empowerment, advocacy & promotion of disability rights and organizational developments.
AGHR Head Office located at Gikondo Sector – Kicukiro district wishes to recruit 1 Community Engagement officer for the EU funded project focusing at promotion of rights and inclusion of children and youth with disabilities (CYWDs) through strengthening social and economic living conditions of project participants.
Context of the position:
This EU Funded project will be jointly implemented by AGHR and SOS Children’s Village Rwanda in Musanze, Rubavu, Kayonza and Nyagatare districts. The project will contribute to the realization of the rights of children and youth with disabilities, enhance independence and decent living conditions of children and youth with disabilities as well as strengthen capacities of communities, families, and stakeholders to effectively contribute to the rights of children and youth with disabilities.
The position holder will therefore be responsible for the following tasks:
- Project implementation:
- Work closely with the project co- Applicant – SOS Children’s Village Rwanda to ensure effective implementation of the project activities
- Collaborate with local government officials and or stakeholders to identify and register project beneficiaries.
- Identify 20 inclusive schools for project support
- Establish inclusive psychosocial support clubs in 20 identified schools to support CYWDs.
- Support Community structures to hold community disability awareness outreaches/campaign at district level
- Facilitate children and youth with disabilities to access and participate in events organized by the project based on their types of disabilities (interpretation, braille printing, large print, personal assistant)
- Oversee project field activities coordination and reporting
- Collaborate and oversee the activities of local CBOs supporting in implementation of the project activities
- Work closely with community volunteers and support them to effectively deliver their work
- Support CYWDs participate in child and youth international days (Day of African child, international day for youth, IDPD) 3 years
- Mobilize and sensitize parents of CWDs on the VSLAs methodology
- Monitoring and Evaluation
- Support and participate in conducting the baseline study for the project
- Support the monitoring and evaluation for project activities, checking progress against expected outcomes and against the project’s theory of change
- Closely collaborate with the project officer to ensure proper co-ordination and adequate recording of lessons learned
- Produce and disseminate success stories as well as related ‘impact’ in his / her zone
- Enters data regularly in the Project Database, ensures quality of data and uses regularly the reports and data stored in the database to track individual progress of children and families.
- Provides information for new requirements (new reports, new data fields or features) to M&E Manager
- Supports M&E in the self-evaluation and/or external evaluation processes.
- Collects regularly information about different indicators as defined in the project M&E plan and reports them
- Hold bi-annual coordination meetings for community child care structures to monitor progress and share experiences of CYWDs
- Conduct peer group supervision to para-social workers and IZUs
- Partnership building and advocacy
- Establish and run project steering committee at district level
- Keeps regular contacts with service providers to ensure that services are provided according to objectives and actions as per project arrangements
- Advocates for the individual child and his/her family to have access to social entitlements or obtain needed services.
- Enhance collaboration with districts officials to maximize on project impact
- Conduct training of CYWDs and caregivers on the rights of Persons with disabilities
- Conduct training for children on Child led advocacy and support their initiatives
- Contributes in community development by organizing/participating in awareness raising activities, community mobilization events and capacity building of the community partners.
- Conduct stakeholders’ meetings at district level for mainstreaming inclusiveness in District Development Plans
- Knowledge Management
- Supports Project officer in documenting good practices, human touch stories.
- Train YWDs on VSLAs management and support the formation of VSLAs
- Train YWDs on entrepreneurships skills; marketing, drawing business plans, simple accounting and book keeping.
- Enrol YWDs on different trades (carpentry, welding, hairdressing, tailoring & knitting, etc.)
- Train the existing Child Protection community structures on child protection, disability right, safeguarding and reporting mechanism
- Train (para-social workers and youth volunteers) on VSLA management skills, entrepreneurship and financial literacy.
- Keeps regular track of latest developments in social work area as well as changes in national legislation, policies and practices related to children and youth with disabilities as the target group.
- Train School Management Committees- (head teachers, Parent representative) on CYWDs rights
- Train caregivers on the rights of CYWDS
- Train male caregivers on positive masculinities to increase male involvement (Men-Engage approach) to care for CYWD
- Train social workforce CSOs and FBOs on Convention of the rights of children (UNCRC) and Convection on the rights of persons with disabilities (UNCRPD).
- Train caregivers of children with disabilities on positive parenting, nutrition, and hygiene
- Perform any other related duties as required by his/her supervisor.
Technical Qualifications and Personal Skills:
- A university degree (Bachelor) in social sciences, Education, disability studies, Community Development studies and any other relevant field;
- At least 10 years of work experience in the community development field and disability;
- Experience in project cycle management;
- Demonstrated capacity for self-organization. Excellent planning and organization skills
- Positive and professional approach. Ability to fulfil commitments and meet deadlines;
- Good written and verbal communication skills, including written and spoken English and French;
- Excellent training, facilitation and capacity building skills
- Well-developed group leadership and presentation skills;
- Ability to develop guidelines and tools, and oversee their implementation;
- Experienced in working in collaboration with local leaders and cooperatives.
- Computer literacy (MS Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Access); and
- Commitment to the values, mission and principles of AGHR.
How to Apply:
If you believe you are the right candidate for the above position, please send your detailed application including application letter, CV with three professional referees, copies of education qualification and certificates) to aghr.recruitments@gmail.com not later than 31st January, 2024 at 5:00 PM. Please mention in the subject of your email: “Community Engagement Officer”.
NB:
- AGHR highly encourage qualified Persons with disabilities and female candidates to apply for this position
- Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted
- Late applications will not be considered.
- Parallel to technical competence, recruitment, selection and hiring decisions will give due emphasis to assessing candidates’ value congruence and thorough background checks, police clearance and reference check processes”
Done in Kigali on 24th January, 2024.
Aimable RUKUNDO
AGHR Chairperson
