Midwife

Volunteer role: Midwife

VSO is the world’s leading international development organisation that works through volunteers to fight poverty. Working in 24 countries around the world, our unique role in international development is to place committed volunteers with carefully selected organisations where their skills can have the greatest impact. As a VSO volunteer you’ll live and work in some of the world’s poorest communities. By sharing your unique skills and experience you’ll help generate new ideas and new ways of doing things, helping the communities you work in lift themselves out of poverty. We’re not about delivering quick fixes, but instead we focus on long-lasting, sustainable change, that will impact generations to come. Join us as a VSO volunteer and help us work towards our vision of a world without poverty.

Role overview

This placement includes but is not limited to the following objectives:

• Improve the quality of Maternal, Neonatal, and Child Health (MNCH) services in the region by strengthening the capacity of midwives, health care workers, community health workers and establishment of systems and referral mechanisms essential for maternal and newborn care both at faculty and community level.
• Support the roll-out of the national Nursing and Midwifery Curriculum by coaching tutors in the implementation and advising on additional adolescent-friendly service provision and early essential newborn care.
• Provide technical capacity-building support to health workers in conducting ultrasound scans of pregnant women and provide day to day support at a health facility, planning and organizing outreach MNH services with the help of health care workers and DHMTs (applicable for Sierra Leone)

Skills, qualifications and experience

Essential

• Registered Midwife- Fully accredited by the relevant professional body.
• At least 5 years’ experience as a midwife in hospital setting.
• Experience in mentoring/training of nurses, students at a maternity and Pediatric Department of any hospital/clinic.
• Experience of working in Gynecology/Obstetrics and neonatal intensive care unit.
• Current knowledge in the field of maternal and child health, including some or all of the following: infection, prevention, antenatal care, family planning, PMTCT, essential and emergency maternal and newborn care.
• Solid communication, presentation and writing skills.
• Demonstrated self-management (i.e. motivation, dealing with pressure, adaptability)
• Teamwork, with the ability to work collaboratively in diverse multi-cultural groups. Ability to work in an institutional environment, – hospital and health facility settings – as well as in the community setting
•  Effective communications skills (report writing, verbal and written)

For Tanzania:

• Fluency in Swahili and English languages and the ability to communicate with different stakeholders on different levels within organisations.)

Desirable

• Masters of Science in Midwifery
• Additional specialization in areas like neonatal care
• Basic computer skills
• Previous developing country work experience
• Experience of community engagement approaches
• Experience of community to faculty referral mechanism
• Interest/experience in social and gender inclusion; social accountability

Competencies and Behaviour

At VSO we believe progress is only possible by working together. Whether you want to join us as an employee, or as a volunteer working in your own country, overseas or online, our selection process includes an assessment based on these core competencies:

• Ability to be open-minded and respectful
• Ability to be resilient and adaptive to new situations
• Ability to facilitate positive change and build sustainable working relationships
• Ability to seek and share knowledge

Equal Opportunities

VSO promotes equal opportunities and values a diverse workforce.

Allowance

As a VSO volunteer, you will be sharing your skills with local communities on a full-time basis. VSO will cover your travel, vaccinations, accommodation, and medical insurance costs, along with a local living allowance which will be paid in local currency. This allowance meets reasonable living expenses in the country, but will not be enough to send money home. You will also receive some financial support to contribute to your on-going expenses at home.

Accommodation

VSO works with some of the poorest communities in the world which mean accommodation varies and will be basic.

Some background about VSO

Much has changed since VSO started 60 years ago. We’ve gone from being a UK charity to a truly global development organization. In 2016/2017 alone, we worked with over 7,000 volunteers from all over the world and from all backgrounds to deliver services that had an impact on the lives of almost 2.6 million people in the 24 countries where we work. Our programmes focus on the areas of health, education and livelihoods, with an increasing emphasis on resilience building, social accountability, gender and social inclusion. We believe progress is only possible when we work together and that strong partnerships are crucial to delivering positive change. That’s why we work with over 500 partner organizations, from local and national governments to businesses, NGOs, funders, charities and community groups. Currently, over 30% of our people are recruited from within the country in which they work, and we continue to grow the share of community and national volunteers involved in our programmes. We also send increasing numbers of volunteers from one developing country to another. However, our vision has remained the same; to build a world without poverty.

If you’re interested in applying for this role, please download the job description for more information.

To submit your application, click on ‘Make an application’ and complete all relevant fields on the online application form.

MAKE AN APPLICATION

VSO has zero tolerance of abuse and exploitation of vulnerable people. We expect all our employees/volunteers to ensure we protect children, young people and vulnerable adults from harm and abide by our safeguarding policy (PDF).