Daily News 3/11/2017
ICAP at Columbia University is a Non-Governmental Organization affiliated with Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health (MsPH) registered in Tanzania as MsPH Tanzania LLC since February 2005 (SO No. 12987). ICAP has been receiving funds to support HIV prevention and treatment programs in Tanzania from the US President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) through the US. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) since 2005. In collaboration with the Ministry of Health, Community Development, Gender, Elderly and Children (MoHCDGEC), ICAP has supported the government on health system strengthening, provided technical support especially on HIV prevention, care, and treatment, voluntary medical male circumcision services, and facilitated HIV prevention interventions in community settings.
From October 2016, ICAP has been receiving PEPFAR funding from CDC for a 5-year project delivering interventions as the community implementing partner. The project, known as FIKIA, provides community-based HIV prevention interventions including HIV testing to key and vulnerable populations (KVP). The goal of FIKIA is to accelerate, expand, and improve the quality of comprehensive community-based HIV prevention services to KVP in order to achieve 90-90-90 targets. FIKIA implementation,spans a total of 50 districts across nine regions, including Kagera, Kigoma, Mwanza, Geita, Simiyu,Mara, Pwani, Tanga, and Dar es Salaam.
ICAP employs competent, dynamic individuals with strong technical knowledge and public health management skills in implementing the program objectives .ICAP is now seeking to fill the below positions for the FIKIA project.
Job Description
Position Title: Linkage and Retention Officer (10 positions)
(Tanzania Nationals Only)
Reports to: Project Coordinator, Designated Region
Job Location: Various - Mwanza (1), Kagera (1), Geita (1), Simiyu (1), Dar es Salaam (2), Pwani (1), Tanga (1), Kigoma (1) and Mara (1)
Travel: Up to 70% in intervention districts
Overall Job Function:
The incumbent will be responsible to manage the linkage to care, initiation of HIV treatment and retention in care of beneficiaries diagnosed with HIV through the FIKIA project which a community-based HIV prevention program. s/he will work closely with the Project Coordinators in the designated regions to help achieve UNAIDs 90-90-90 goals along the cascade for targeted beneficiaries, including Key and Vulnerable Populations (KVP).
Specific responsibilities and duties:
• Develop work plans for the day-to-day implementation in assigned region toachievelinkage to and retention in care for beneficiaries who are diagnosed with HIV from community based testing efforts.
• Monitor the uptake of HIV testing and treatment including test-and-treat strategies and identify gaps to improve uptake of treatment initiation, linkage to and retention in care.
• Work closely with clinical implementing partners to coordinate activities, share data and work-plans to ensure continuum of care for beneficiaries reached or followed up in the community."
• Support health care workers conduct post-test and pre-ART counselling with HIV positive clients, and help facilitate partner notification and index testing.
• Support and mentor peer outreach volunteers regularly during outreach sessions to ensure adequate follow-up and support of HIV positive clients including tracking of missed appointments, defaulters, and loss to follow-up (LTFU).
• Liaise with health facility staff to ensure HIV positive clients identified in the community and linked to facility are appropriately followed up and retained in care.
• Track HIV positive clients that were transferred out to other facilities within the ICAP implementing regions and ensure that they are retained in care.
• Work closely with M&E staff to ensure data on linkage and retention collected by the program are accurately captured, and support CTC2 data extraction to enable follow-up and reporting on linkage and retention.
• Improve feedback on referrals from health facilities and overall strengthen the continuum of care between community and facility interventions.
• Perform any other relevant duties as assigned by the supervisor.
Required qualification, Knowledge and skills: Required Education:
Medically trained personnel with a diploma or higher including: Nurse, MD, clinical officer, assistant medical officer
OR
Non-medical personnel with a Bachelor's degree or higher in the following fields: Public Health, Sociology, Psychology, Social Work, Gender Studies, or Community Development.
• Minimum 2 years' experience working directly with people living with HIV, providing counselling or other prevention and treatment services.
• Preference given to those who have additional experience working with Key and Vulnerable Populations (KVP) for HIV prevention and care.
• Familiarity 'with MOH tools on HIV care and treatment such as CTCl and 2 cards, registers and database.
• Ability to maintain confidentiality regarding clients' health status and sensitive information contained in data sources.
• Ability to adapt to situations quickly and problem solve .
• Ability to work independently and travel extensively to remote areas, including islands
• Flexibility to work after normal working hours and weekends at informal gatherings and entertainment centres
• Ability to interact well with all targeted beneficiary groups and peer outreach volunteers by facilitating a non-judgmental, non-discriminatory, and non-stigmatizing environment in the program, to welcome all clients regardless of their background
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills in Kiswahili and English
• Must be a Tanzanian Citizen; preference given to candidates already living in the job location region.
Qualified applicants should send their cover letter and CV by 10th November,2017 via email to :
icap-jobs-tanzania@columbia.edu, mentioning in the subject line the Position Title and Job Location. Only short listed applicants will be contacted. Please do NOT attach any certificates when submitting online. ICAP is an equal opportunity employer; women are encouraged to apply.