Who we are
SOS Children’s Villages in Ethiopia is an International Non-governmental organization and a member of SOS Children’s Villages International Federation. We started our humanitarian work in Ethiopia with the opening of our first Village in Mekelle, Northern part of Ethiopia in 1974. Since then, we have expanded our programs to different regions where there are significant needs for intervention and where we believe we can work in partnership with all relevant actors to bring sustainable positive outcomes for children’s and young people.
Today, we have grown significantly to meet the persistent challenges that confront Ethiopian children who have lost parental care and those that are at risk of losing their parental care. Working in close collaboration with international donors, local government and community-based organizations across eight program locations; we aspire that every child grows up with love, respect and security.
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Our Commitment to Safeguarding
At SOS Children's Villages, safeguarding isn't just a policy, it's a foundational value embedded in everything we do. We are unwavering in our commitment to protecting the children, young people, adults, and communities we serve, as well as our workforce and resources.
We cultivate an environment of trust and accountability where every voice is heard and respected. All successful candidates will be expected to champion our holistic safeguarding principles, actively upholding our Child & Youth Safeguarding Policy, Code of Conduct, and regulations against sexual misconduct, fraud, and corruption.
By joining our team, you commit to integrating these vital standards into your work, ensuring the highest levels of safety, ethics, and integrity in every action and partnership.
Together, we create a world where everyone feels safe, respected, and protected
Join Our Mission:
We are looking for Project MHPSS and CP officer who will be is responsible to plan and provide comprehensive and integrated psychological, emotional, and protection social services for the most needy and affected population in Sekota & for mapping available services for children at risk and working closely with other SOS Children’s Village staff and other relevant governmental and non-governmental organizations at the Woreda level.
Key Responsibilities
Program Implementation
- Assess MHPSS and protection needs and identify vulnerabilities and risks in the project implementation areas at both the health facility and community levels.
- Implement MHPSS & protection activities and provide psychological consultation on regular bases.
- Conduct regular awareness-raising sessions with target communities
- Assist in building and maintaining relationships with schools, communities, partners and state contacts.
- Responsible for the day-to-day implementation of MHPSS activities in the project implementation areas
- Identify elements and changes in Child Psychology as the result of conflict such as playstyle changes and unhealthy emotion, grief, trauma, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.
- Provide appropriate information and level of vulnerability such as cases of Gender-Based Violence and child abuse for sectoral, holistic and need-based support
Provide psychosocial support to the community
- Organize data and document the number of reported Gender-Based Violence, psychological and physical abuses, pregnancy-related complications, people with chronic illnesses and people with disabilities
- Develop methodologies and data collection techniques for assessments, indicators, programme management, evaluations, and research related to MHPSS and Protection
- Support regular participatory activities with different groups of children, adolescents and youths to identify issues affecting children in their communities, and assist the teams to develop appropriate responses;
- Coordinate the designing of children, adolescents and youth and family assessments and psychometrics tools and supervise their administration.
- In cooperation with other Technical Advisors, ensure that the integrated MHPSS and protection activities are implemented according to SOS CV and international standards.
- Responsible for the planning and implementation of MHPSS activities, closely monitoring, evaluating, reporting their development and flag potential issues on time.
- Supervise with humanitarian response co-workers of SOS Children’s Villages and implement jointly planned activities to improve the mental health and welfare of target groups.
- Strengthen the community-facility referral system for care for survivors of Gender-Based Violence with psychosocial problems.
Capacity building and system strengthening
- Build the capacity of government institutions, implementing partners, and community structures on child protection policy implementation, humanitarian principles, gender-based violence (GBV), the Minimum Standards for Child Protection in Humanitarian Action (CPMS), and technical guidelines.
- Support the adaptation, dissemination, and implementation of child protection policies, minimum standards, Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs), and referral pathways in line with national and international frameworks.
- Provide technical mentoring and coaching to government and partner organizations to strengthen child protection coordination, systems, and service delivery.
- Facilitate training, peer learning, and coordination review meetings to promote continuous learning and quality improvement.
- Support the strengthening and sustainability of government-led child protection coordination and case management systems
Monitoring and evaluation
- Ensure regular and ethical data collection on protection concerns and MHPSS needs, using age-, gender-, and disability-sensitive methodologies that uphold confidentiality and do no harm principles.
- Monitor the quality, coverage, and effectiveness of child protection case management, psychosocial support services, safe spaces, and community-based protection mechanisms.
- Contribute to baseline, midline, and endline assessments, as well as post-intervention evaluations, ensuring child and survivor participation where safe and appropriate.
- Support the design and use of feedback and complaint mechanisms accessible to children, caregivers, and communities, and ensure timely response and integration of feedback into program improvement.
- Document and share lessons learned, promising practices, and case studies to inform evidence-based programming and advocacy.
Reporting and documentation
- Ensure that reports reflect disaggregated data (e.g., by age, gender, disability) and highlight trends in protection risks and MHPSS needs.
- Document and share case studies, success stories, and lessons learned to inform program adaptation, learning, and advocacy efforts.
- Support the development of donor reports by contributing technical and contextual content specific to child protection and MHPSS components.
- Maintain organized and secure documentation of case management files, incident reports, session logs, and referral records in accordance with data protection and confidentiality protocols.
- Ensure documentation of psychosocial activities, outreach sessions, trainings, and awareness-raising events, including participant feedback and outcomes.
- Contribute to the preparation of inputs for internal learning reviews, evaluations, and knowledge-sharing materials.
Child protection
- Lead child protection and safety programming in emergencies including assessment, program development, training for and management of Child-Friendly Spaces.
- Support humanitarian colleagues in the implementation of emergency programs and establishment of recovery programming
- Organize discussions on child protection risks, concerns with stakeholders, children and young persons on community members
- Strengthen the Child Safeguarding through creating awareness with the woreda and community leaders.
Safeguarding
- Ensure adherence to SOS CV policies such as the Code of Conduct, Safeguarding Standards and others as well as the minimum standards of humanitarian relief
- Ensure that all support is provided in the best interest of the child.
- Responsible for taking part in awareness-raising sessions and capacity building training in relation to Safeguarding and Code of Conduct and to protect children and young people from all forms of abuse, abandonment, exploitation, violence and discrimination
- Support children, young people and program participants to make them understand the Safeguarding risks and protection mechanisms
- Ensure proper safeguarding procedures and policies are in place to protect programme participant children, young persons, adults and other stakeholders.
- Responsible for reporting any safeguarding suspicion, concern, allegation, or incident immediately, following the safeguarding reporting procedures.
- Responsible for ensuring behaviours and all relationships are based on safeguarding and in line with the Code of Conduct and adhering to it in every situation
- Be vigilant about any possible form of abuse/harm, neglect, harassment, or exploitation against, children, youth and adults in personal and professional lives;
- Report any Incident Management Team or concern within 24 hours to the Incident Management Team, focal person or concerned party through the defined channels for reporting the allegation
Our Ideal Candidate?
Let's find out if we're a match. The next step in our process depends on how your background closely align with the below criteria’s.
Essential Requirements (Must-Have):
Education
- BSc degree in Psychology, Social work, Nursing and Sociology or related field
Experience:
- At least 3 years of experience in child protection, MHPSS, counselling and social work, working with highly vulnerable children who lost their parents or are unaccompanied.
- Strong experience knowledge and experience in case management, trauma care and GBV response.
- Experience in community-based child protection approaches
- Strong understanding of Mental Health and Psychosocial Support (MHPSS) principles and practices.
- Experience and ability to work in humanitarian or emergency context
Desired Assets (Nice-to-Have):
- Experience working in similar projects in INGO.
- Strong understanding and familiarity with the local context and surrounding areas.
- Has experience and exposure working with the community and stakeholder.
- Experience in creating a child friendly environment in humanitarian context
- Proficiency in Somali language
SOS Competencies
General Competency
- Understanding the organization and commitment to its vision and mission: able to clearly communicate SOS Children’s Villages Who We Are (Vision, Mission & Values), “Living our Values” policies and strategies in all areas.
- Child rights & child development: Working knowledge in all areas of child rights, child protection, child development, family & community development, and rights-based programming in a developing country.
- Knowledge of MHPSS: Knowledge of psychological first aid, trauma response and psychosocial care approaches.
- Child Protection: experience on child protection initiatives, awareness raising and risk assessment.
- Monitoring, Evaluation and Reporting: experience in preparing structured report and using evidence to support on the program.
- Community Engagement and Capacity Building: ability to build and maintain partnership with stakeholders such as schools, community and government stakeholders.
- Networking and Relationships Building: ability to build, maintain and leverage networks with local government, NGO communities leaders and other relevant stakeholders.
- Accountability and Result Orientation: ensure the ownership of task and meets deadlines effectively and monitor progress and communicate concerns proactively.
- Collaboration: driven to work with others, able to build partnerships and teamwork internally and externally.
- Integrity: able to state views openly and act in line with beliefs, maintain the organization’s values, maintain deadlines and commitments; have ethical standards, ability to gain the trust of co-workers, and desire to be of service.
- Communication: high-level written and verbal communication/presentation skills; ability to interact effectively with partners and staff at all levels; ability to represent the organization externally; exceptional ability to communicate consistently, clearly, and effectively with a range of stakeholders;
- Software: - Computer literacy (MS Office and MS Project, and other statistical softer wares such as STATA, and SPSS)
Core Competency
- Kindness: Act with empathy towards everyone he/she works with.
- Continuous Learning: Make an effort to learn, understand and grow as a person, admitting your own mistakes.
- Inclusiveness: In any actions show respect and care for others.
- Initiative: speak up when things are not right, do not hesitate to act, and adapt to change when necessary.
- Results Orientation: look for solutions and focus on desired results.
Does This Sound Like You?
To apply, please submit your updated resume via SOS Children's Villages Application portal (ICIMS)
We actively champion diversity and inclusion and strongly encourage women to step forward and apply. As part of our unwavering commitment to holistic safeguarding protecting children, youth, adults, and assets our selection process emphasizes value alignment and includes thorough background checks for all potential hires.
SOS Children's Villages in Ethiopia is an equal opportunity employer, providing fair consideration to all applicant regardless of race, colour, religion, gender, ancestry, national origin, age, disability, marital status, or class.
Please note that only shortlisted candidates will be contacted.
