Community Outreach Worker

Position: Community Outreach Worker

Responsible to: Nutritionist or Medical officer

Location: Peshawar

Merlin International Profile

Merlin specializes in health, saving lives in times of crisis and helping to rebuild shattered health services. Each year, Merlin helps more than 15 million people in up to 20 countries.

Context and Background

Merlin is the UK’s leading international health charity, sending medical experts to the frontline of global emergencies and staying on to build lasting health systems. We entered Pakistan in 2005 after an earthquake in Jammu Kashmir left 75,000 dead and hundreds of thousands homeless. Since then we have expanded to provide a wide range of primary health care, malaria control, family planning, post abortion care and nutrition services to over 2.2 million people. We currently support 110 health facilities and ten hospitals, and have scaled up in times of emergency including the devastating floods of 2010 and 2011.

In Sindh, the province which was worst affected by the floods of 2010 and hit again by severe rains in 2011, Merlin is providing health and nutrition services in Dadu, Thatta and Badin. This includes treatment centres for communicable diseases like diarrhoea, feeding programmes for severely and moderately malnourished children and vaccinations to protect children under the age of 5 from diseases such as polio.

In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, we are working in the Swat Valley, Peshawar, Buner and Nowshera districts – areas which are still confronting political instability, widespread militancy and displacement in wake of the conflict in neighbouring Afghanistan. Merlin has provided emergency healthcare to internally displaced people (IDPs) in Jalozai camp since 2009, which were scaled up at the start of 2012 following an influx of IDPs from Khyber Agency. As people return to the Swat valley, we are working with government of Pakistan to strengthen the country’s health system, including training lady health workers to provide family planning advice in an effort to stem maternal mortality

In Baluchistan, Merlin is implementing a Global fund supported malaria control programme in 10 districts and now planning to expand its health and nutrition interventions into Naseerabad and Jaffarbad districts as Baluchistan has as well consistently faced a sequence of natural and manmade catastrophes. Furthermore, with GAM rates of 16.1%, Baluchistan is confronting, based upon WHO criteria, significantly high levels of child acute malnutrition.

Main Purpose of the Role:

• Registration and Management of Acute Malnourished Children (<5yrs) and Pregnant & Lactating Women as per CMAM’s SFP & OTP Protocols, under direct supervision of the District/ Camp Nutritionist. Additional support to PHC Project and hygiene promotion and vaccination.

• To coordinate effectively SFP/ OTP centre activities with the Outreach workers & LHWs Program, where applicable.

• Support to establish and maintain linkages between SFP/ OTP Centre and other Components of CMAM and PHC.

Responsibilities:

Support the development and implementation of a sustainable Health & Nutrition promotion program in the targeted communities and Health facilities:

• Identify the areas of need for health & nutrition promotion and education within targeted communities though contact with community representatives and assessment of knowledge and practices amongst clinics attendants.

• Assist the Nutritionist and Health and Nutrition Promotion-Incharge (H&NPI) in defining strategies how to address the needs of Health & nutrition Promotion.

• Assist Nutritionist and H&NPI in arranging training for Health Promoters accordingly with the agreed curriculum.

• Arranging trainings for Health Promoters in Health & nutrition Promotion and Communication skills at the level of all supported facilities with a focus on IYCF and BF.

• Conduct trainings of community in health and hygiene promotion and the implementation of different techniques & activities in selected communities.

• Supervising Health Promoters and collecting reports from them.

• Assist the Nutritionist and H&NPI in preparing visual information materials e.g. posters, leaflets, flipcharts.

• Participate and assist the Nutritionist and MOs in ensuring health & nutrition promotion session during the distribution of different kits for targeted community

• Liaise with community representative and members for health & nutrition work, if possible, encourage formation of community groups for health and nutrition promotion activities.

• Promote utilization of services available at nearby health facilities by monitoring and supporting the activities of the PHC Home visitors.

• Preparing written reports of activities on a regular basis and submit with Nutritionist and Base Incharge.

• Other tasks as designated by the Nutritionist and H&NPI.

Monitoring and evaluation

• Facilitate Periodic Screenings using MUAC; exit Interviews, client satisfaction surveys, etc.

• Monitor the activities of Health Promoters in their respective communities.

• Monitor health & Nutrition promotion activities provided by the medical and Para medical staff

Person Specification

Essential

• Graduate or Masters, preferably in a relevant subject.

• Experience working in health promotion in the community and IDP camps.

• Excellent management and personnel skills to enable the motivation, encouragement and participation of INGO home visitors.

• Strong organizational management skills and able to build good team spirit

• Ability to cope well under stressful conditions.

• Ability and flexibility to understand the cultural and political environment and to work well with other stakeholders.

• Ability to travel to all IDP camps and to offer close supervisory support to the INGO home visitor.

• Excellent communication skills, with good spoken and written English.

• Good computer skills – ability to write weekly and monthly report and data analysis

• Experience in health & Nutrition promotion training

Desirable

• Previous experience within a humanitarian aid organization on CMAM.

• Experience working in a Muslim context preferable

• Experience working in IDP camps

• Community work experience