Women for Afghan Women (WAW) is a grassroots civil society organization dedicated to protecting and promoting the rights of disenfranchised Afghan women and girls in Afghanistan and New York. In particular, WAW works to help Afghan women and girls exercise their rights to pursue their individual potential to self-determination, and to representation in all areas of life—political, social, cultural, and economic. WAW relentlessly advocates for women’s rights and challenges the norms that underpin gender-based violence to influence attitudes and bring about change.

Job Summary

This position holder will be working closely with the Legal Assistants, GBV, and other MHPSS Teams in Kunduz and targeted districts within the Internally Displaced People (IDP) and Refugee Returnee communities with an aim to:

• Improve the persons of concerns’ (PoCs) mental health well-being and psychosocial conditions;
• Support the referred cases by providing qualitative psychosocial care and mental health activities;
• Assist the Legal, GBV, and MHPSS teams in the identification of beneficiaries in need of specific psychosocial counseling and ensure individual or group support for identified beneficiaries.

Job Responsibilities:

Psychosocial counselors aim to reduce distress and improve the psychosocial well-being of her beneficiaries. He/she uses psychosocial methods and research to make positive changes to his/her beneficiaries' lives and offer various forms of treatment.

The MHPSS triangle should be in mind; our programme is mainly dealing with the bottom 2–3. However, if we have specialized staff, i.e., doctors, psychiatrists and psychologists, we can handle with the Specialized Services at the top of the triangle.

She will closely work with beneficiaries of all ages who have a variety of different mental or physical health issues, such as:

• Depression and anxiety;
• mental illness;
• Adjustment to physical illness;
• Neurological disorders;
• Addictive behaviors;
• Challenging behaviors;
• Eating disorders;
• Personal and family relationship problems; and
• Learning disabilities.

Tasks may include:

• Organize the initial assessment with survivors to assess the situation (and complete the relevant data-collection form). Keep detailed paperwork about PwS in order to monitor the progress of the clients' treatments.
• Assess the beneficiaries’ psychological condition by using psychological tools to detect vulnerable cases and ensure psychological follow up.
• Support survivors, with assistance from the team leader and MHPSS team in serious cases.
• Refer survivors to the appropriate medical services and accompany them if necessary or upon their request.
• Refer survivors to established referral mechanisms as appropriate, eg., legal services, the mental health center or other facilities, depending on the services available and everyone's needs and requests.
• Refer clients to specialists or to other institutions/ organizations for non-counselling treatment of problems and refer them to other service providers in case of severe cases of violence.
• Work with individuals, groups and communities to improve mental health of the victims of violence
• Assist in the development of referral networks between partners implementing SGBV and implement referral pathways if not yet available.
• Facilitate and/or run meetings on psychosocial issues with community leaders and other influential members of the community, with the consent of the community outreach workers.
• Fill in the relevant data-collection form for each session and any other resource made available by WAW or UNHCR.
• Ensure the safety of team members from any harm, abuse, neglect, harassment and exploitation to achieve the programme's goals on safeguarding implementation.
• Act as a key source of support, guidance and expertise on safeguarding for establishing a safe working environment.
• Offer psychosocial therapy and treatments for difficulties relating to mental health issues such as anxiety, depression, addiction, social and interpersonal problems and challenging behavior;
• Any other tasks assigned by the supervisor.

• A Diploma in Psychology, Social or Humanitarian Sciences, a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology/Clinical Psychology is essential;
• A minimum of 3 years of relevant work experience;
• Knowledge of GBV and case management and protection interventions is a plus;
• Knowledge of counselling and psychosocial support is essential
• Excellent oral and written communication skills, as well as interpersonal and teamwork skills; sense of responsibility; strong organizational skills; perseverance; accuracy.
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills in order to deal with people in distress and violence;
• A strong understanding of the profession and the role of a psychosocial counselor;
• Computer literacy, with excellent knowledge of Microsoft Excel and PowerPoint, is a plus;
• Good command of English (written and spoken) & fluency in local language (Dari, Pashto, Uzbeki, etc);
• Experience working in humanitarian emergency settings is an asset.

Others:

• Empathy and compassion with a strong commitment to teamwork and humanitarian principles (Humanity, Impartiality, Neutrality, Independence and Confidentiality)
• Ability to remain flexible, and to maintain good spirits in challenging and stressful situations.
• Ability to establish and maintain good working relationships in a multi-ethnic, multi-cultural and multi-disciplinary environment.
• Ability to recognize own limitations and respond to difficult situations;
• Ability to apply knowledge of academic psychology and research to clinical problems;
• The capacity to be critical and analytical and to work in a self-motivated, independent way;
• Attend team meetings and share qualitative inputs;
• Be flexible in performing his/her duties to ensure that beneficiaries are getting good quality services.

Interested Afghan applicants should submit a cover letter along with their CVs in one PDF file explaining their interest in and suitability for the position. Please indicate the vacancy number (VA#1440 MHPSS Counselor/Kunduz) clearly in the cover letter and in the subject line of your email and send it to: hr@womenforafghanwomen.org

Note: Kindly avoid sending your educational and work certificates at this stage of recruitment. Applications received after the closing date without mentioning the location in the subject line of the email will not be considered.