Summary
Date Posted: Saturday, May 06, 2023 , Base Salary: Not Disclosed

JOB DETAILS:

Introduction:
Mental Health Uganda (MHU) is an indigenous, non-governmental, membership-based disabled people’s organisation; an organisation of people with a lived experience of mental health problems. SOS Uganda, on the other hand, is a child-focused, social development, non-governmental organisation with a strong reputation for fulfilling children’s right to quality care and protection, education and health.
The 2 partners are implementing a 3-year project from 2023, primarily targeting young people between the ages of 13 to 19 years in selected secondary schools in Gulu and Wakiso districts. The project seeks to: normalize mental health conversations, reduce stigma and discrimination and facilitate access to psychosocial support in the targeted schools. Youth active participation and empowerment is a key component of the project, ensuring that youth lead the development and implementation of project activities.
Through this project, the partners seek to further expand and consolidate the existing MHU peer-to-peer community structures by recruiting and providing relevant training to youth peers dubbed ‘Mentor Champions’. The Mentor Champions should have a lived experience of Mental Health Problems so that they can mentor/support ‘Champions’, to be selected from schools (will also be trained to support peers within the schools), to normalize mental health conversations in a school environment. This is to also promote community mental health care or services as provided for in the Mental Health Act, 2019 as part of the bigger picture for MHU.
Two teachers (1M, 1F) per school will also be selected and trained (together with the Mentor Champions). The intention is to sustain the gains of the project in schools when the students have left. The teachers will also attend to cases that are challenging to the Mental Health Champions and make appropriate referrals alongside Mentor Champions.

Context:
• To support this Mentor Champions’ and Teachers’ training, MHU already developed a training manual adapted to the category of participants, including among topics: early detection of mental health problems, how to provide psychological first aid, safeguarding, referrals, how to facilitate peer support groups, self-care, stigma and discrimination, and rights of persons with mental health problems. MHU will hire 2 consultants to deliver this training under 2 lots.
• Lot 1: A consultant to deliver the Mentor Champions’ training in Wakiso/Kampala District;
• Lot 2: A consultant to deliver the Mentor Champions’ training in Gulu District.
• Note: All applicants for this consultancy must indicate clearly which Lot they are applying for and one consultant cannot apply for both Lots.
• Objective of the assignment: To deliver a Community Volunteers’ (Mentor Champions) and Teachers’ training on mental health, in Gulu and Wakiso distircts.

To better appreciate the needs of this assignment, the profile of the Mentor Champions and their roles are detailed hereunder:
Profile of the Mentor Champion:
• Have a lived experience of a mental health problem but having achieved reasonable stability with their condition; and ready to disclose their story
• Adult Ugandans between 18 – 35 years
• Trainable (able to read and write in English and or any other commonly used language in the project location); preferably having completed o-level education (Senior Four)
• Residing within or in close proximity with the project location (Gulu or Wakiso district) or even the selected schools.
• Have a friendly personality and able to build networks
• Willing to work only with volunteer incentives (spirit of voluntarism).

Functions of the Mentor Champions:
Working under the supervision of the Project Officer in each project location and school management structures, the Mentor Champions will:
• Mentor ‘Champions’ in schools into conducting conversations on mental health
• Support Champions in providing referrals to students in need of professional mental health care
• Link the project to parents and or guardians of students suffering from mental health problems upon the students’ recommendation
• Ensure that there is a good working relationship between the project team and the participating schools
• Conduct ‘Social Contact’ with members of the general public
• Refer members of the public to places and institutions that offer professional mental health care (these will be mapped under the project)
• Participate in awareness work on mental health both in schools and communities as required Collect data, basic information from their activities and report accordingly
• Participate in events and evaluations organized by the project.
• Other activities related to the project as may be requested from time to time.

The Teachers:
• Two teachers (1M, 1F) per school will be trained to sustain the activities in schools when the students have left. The teachers will also attend to cases that are challenging to the mental health champions and make appropriate referrals.
• Must have a good track record among learners and teachers (youth friendly and non-violent).
• Not more than 45 years.
• The teacher should be having a full-time contract with the school (not a part-time or substitute teacher).
• Willingness to volunteer.
• Have a passion for the wellbeing of young people and have an interest in supporting growth and mentorship beyond academics.
• Should be non-judgmental, and able to maintain confidentiality of information shared by the students.
• Willing to take on extra responsibilities to support learners with mental health challenges
• Gender sensitivity; the teacher should be cognizant of the unique needs of learners and uphold their rights and interests.
• Possess practical experience in basic guidance and counseling (not a must but desirable)

The role of teachers:
• Mentor other teachers on mental health and psychosocial support and promote diffusion into other teaching and learning activities.
• Facilitate awareness creation on mental health in schools.
• Provide psycho-social education to learners with mental health problems.
• Refer learners with mental health problems to individuals or institutions that offer more specialized care and treatments.
• Advocate for and participate in the creation of safe spaces for learners to speak up and acquire relevant support.
• Note: A Project Officer has been placed per project location to coordinate and oversee the activities of the project, including these Mentor Champions and the selected teachers.

Responsibilities:
Mental Health Uganda
• Mobilize for the trainings.
• Facilitate participants for the trainings (excluding Consultants).
• Provide logistics for the trainings, including the venues.

The Consultant
• Develop training material from the manual.
• Facilitate the trainings using agreed methodologies.
• Write the training report.

Reporting and key deliverables:
• Contractually, the Consultant will report to the MHU Program Manager and copy to the Executive Director. The key deliverables are:
• Training slides in power point plus the training agenda across the 5 days (a draft at least 2 days before the actual training);
• A training report (not exceeding 20 pages), latest 1 week after the training.

Key resources available:
While the consultant will use his/her own experience, including examples, demonstrations, etc. to deliver the training, the training content will extracted from the Mental Health Peer Educators’ Manual developed by MHU.

Duration and timelines:
The consultancy will require 11 man-days for each Lot (3 days to prepare, 5 days to deliver the training and 3 days to compile the training report). The planning and execution of the assignment should follow the calendar below:
DATE ACTIVITIES
May 4th, 2023 Share Terms of Reference (ToR) for the training
May 12th, 2023 Submission of proposals for the consultancy
May 16th, 2023 Identify and contract Consultancy
May 22nd – 26th, 2023 Actual Mentor Champions’ Training
May 31st, 2023 Submission of the final training report

Qualifications of the consultant:
• A post graduate qualification in psychology or related field. o Excellent understanding of the peer model in the delivery of services; o Strong experience in delivering mental health training to peers; o A good understanding of disability rights and development agenda, especially MHPSS. o A good working experience of children and youth mental health issues. o Excellent writing, presentation and facilitation skills.
• High level of professionalism and an ability to work independently; and o Excellent command of oral and written English language.

Award criteria:
• Consultants’ CVs 40%
• Methodology of delivering the training, highlighting clearly the approach, participants roles, among other key elements promote the active participation of youth (trainees) 30%

Financial offer 30% Payment Terms:
• Stage Proportion of payment related to the Lot
• Upon signing of the contract 50%
• Upon acceptance of the final training report 50%


Job Experience: No Requirements

Work Hours: 8

Level of Education: Postgraduate Degree

Job application procedure

Interested individuals should submit a technical proposal (methodology and CV of the consultant) and the financial proposal (using the format in annex 1) not later than 4:00 p.m., local time, on May 12th, 2023, with the tender title as the subject to:
The Executive Director, Mental Health Uganda on info@mentalhealthuganda.org 
All material for submission must be merged into one pdf file not exceeding 12 pages.
Note: MHU promotes zero tolerance for discrimination/harassment based on gender, sexual orientation, sexual identity, religious beliefs etc. All staff, volunteers and contractors shall adhere to strict guidelines in order to facilitate “silent” inclusion. Project actors will also adhere to MHU’s safeguarding provisions – a set of procedures and practices designed to ensure that no harm comes to people as a result of contact with MHU’s programs, operations, or people.


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