National and International Roles in the ECE Field

Three International programs/organizations that I will include in my Communities of Practice include: AmeriCares, UNICEF and Child Fund International.

AmeriCares, founded in 1975, is a crisis prevention and solution based organization based in Stamford, CT. Founded by President/CEO, Bob Macauley after a jet crash holding Vietnamese infants; AmeriCares operates in 90 countries across the world. Currently, there are no employment opportunities that I finding interesting, AmeriCares has a 12-week summer internship that is held every summer. Internships for this organization are held from June to August and are available to both undergraduate and graduate students. These students must possess interest in humanitarianism, global health and international development for children.

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) was created in 1946 to assist European children who were faced with famine and disease. Since 1946, UNICEF continues to help children and protect the rights of children globally. By focusing on issues that affect children such as: survival, development, education, gender equality, children with HIV/AIDS, child protection, advocacy and policy; UNICEF is fully committed to ensuring the protection of children. UNICEF is active in over 190 countries in the world. The employment opportunity that interests me is the Education Specialist (Emergency and Cluster Coordination) in Congo. This position is responsible for the “planning, implementing, monitoring and evaluation of the Education programs” (www.careers.unicef/org) . The qualifications for this position include:

·         Possess an advanced university degree in Education, Primary Education or in the Social  Sciences

·         Five years of progressively professional work experience in National and International levels within the field

·         Experience in working with United Nations or other International development organizations is a plus

Child Fund International has been helping improve the lives of children for seventy-five years through child sponsorship.  Founded in Richmond, Virginia, by Dr. J. Calvitt Clarke and based from the approach that “focuses on working with children, regardless of race, creed or gender, throughout their journey from birth to young adulthood, as well as with families, local organizations and communities globally to create the environments children need to thrive.” (www.childfund.org). The Child Fund International is a great way to help children of the world. With twelve ways to help assist a child or children, those who wish to help children are given options to help.  The job opportunity that interests me is that of a Child Protection Specialist. This position allows a candidate to collaborate nationally and internationally with colleagues as it relates to child protection laws and agenda, maintaining quality programming, and seek out further sponsorship. Qualifications for this position include:

•   Bachelor’s degree required/Master’s degree preferred in a field related to child protection (international development, child development, community development, social work, psychology, education, sociology, anthropology, public health, etc.)
•   5 years of experience in community based child protection in development and/or emergency work
• Demonstrated experience in results-based child protection program design, implementation and/or evaluation
• Proven ability to provide high quality child protection technical assistance, guidance, and coaching to international and field-based implementing staff and partners.
• Knowledge and experience in working with community-based protection
• Experience with USG and other key child protection donor agencies and grant making processes (e.g. USAID, PEPFAR, DoS, DoL, UNICEF, DFID, etc.).
• Knowledge and/or experience in the case management, Organized, detail-oriented, team player, self-starter and results-oriented individual.
• Excellent presentation, public speaking and interpersonal skills.
• Bilingual preferred
•  Significant Travel outside of the US required.

References:

http://www.AmeriCares.org

http://www.ChildFund.org

http://www.UNICEF.org