Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) is an international, independent, non-profit medical humanitarian organization that delivers emergency aid to people affected by armed conflict, epidemics, pandemics, natural disasters and exclusion from healthcare. MSF started working in Yemen since 1986 and have been present in the country continuously since 2007. Today, MSF works in 23 hospitals across the country and provides support to more than 17 health facilities across 13 governorates, in line with our principles of independence, impartiality and neutrality. For more information, visit our Arabic website, www.msf-me.org

Médecins Sans Frontières Belgium in Yemen mission is recruiting 2 INTERCULTURAL & LINGUISTIC MEDIATOR.

Female candidates are highly encouraged to apply. Other suitable candidates will be included in a pool of casual workers  

Location: PHCCs and outreach activities in Aden and Lahj governorates
Contract duration: Six (6) months, with the possibility of extension
Contract type: Fixed-Term contract 
Reporting to: Project Coordinator

Main Purpose:

Supporting the communication and interaction between the people receiving services (specifically those included in mixed migration dynamics) and care providers, through ensuring quality linguistic and intercultural interpretation, addressing consequences of language barriers, socio-cultural differences and discrimination, providing an understanding of the local socio-cultural approach, following MSF protocols and procedures.

Accountabilities:

• Facilitate the relation between the people receiving services and the care providers involved in medical consultations, mental health, physiotherapy and social worker sessions, etc. through:     
  • Providing quality linguistic and culturally sensitive interpretation between the care providers and the person receiving a service (trialogue) in the language in which they would like to express themselves (source language / target language); Supporting intercultural awareness, sensitiveness and clear communication between the parties. 
  • Assisting care providers and the people receiving services in addressing negative consequences of socio-cultural differences, to support the therapeutic/social intervention through sharing with the care providers relevant aspects of the cultural background of the person receiving a service, acting as a cultural broker. 
  • Accompanying and following up the people receiving services to referrals (health and social care facilities) as needed 
  • Participating in case management meetings & medical meetings on ad hoc basis.
• Together with relevant team members provide information to the persons receiving services on the use of the healthcare system and other support services (shelter, food, transport, legal support) provided by MSF and other actors, with the aim of favouring empowerment and autonomy of the people receiving services 
• Contribute to context understanding and data collection on medical/humanitarian issues, with a specific attention to vulnerabilities, to provide reliable information for operational decision-making through:  
  • Ensure quality linguistic and intercultural interpretation during the collection of testimonies 
  • Support administration of assessments and/or surveys when needed  
  • Report all important information expressed by the people receiving services and the communities, always ensuring confidentiality 
  • Identifying and report barriers impairing fairness and equality in access to services. 
• Support other MSF activities, such as Health Promotion (HP) activities, Non-Food items distribution, crowd control, etc.) 
• Guarantee confidentiality, impartiality and neutrality. Declaring conflict of interest

Education & Experience 

• Essential secondary education. 
• Degree in social sciences, social communication or teaching is an asset. 
• Training in interpretation or intercultural mediation is an asset 
• Essential previous experience in mixed migration contexts 
• Essential minimum 1 year experience in a similar position, preferably in provision of medical services and/or with NGOs  

Languages 

• Essential written & spoken proficiency in at least one language among Oromo/Amharic/Tigrinya/Somali in addition to Arabic and English.