Overview:
Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) translates to Doctors without Borders, was founded in 1971 in Paris by a group of journalists and doctors.
We provide medical assistance to people affected by conflict, epidemics, disasters, or exclusion from healthcare. Our teams are made up of tens of thousands of health professionals, logistic and administrative staff - bound together by our charter. Our actions are guided by medical ethics and the principles of impartiality, independence and neutrality. We are a non-profit, self-governed, member-based organisation.
In 2020 MSF OCB has handed over the responsibility for the implementation of their Operations in Italy to MSF Italy, with the mandate to focus on Migration issues.
People On the Move project is based mainly in the South of Italy (Agrigento and Roccella Jonica) focusing on providing first medical line service at landings and PHC through mobile clinic. Our target population are mainly transit people. Together with these interventions, the project has the objective to monitor/assess medical needs above all Italian territory with the objective to identify situation on needs, providing timely medical intervention.
**Responsibilities**:
**Scope, reporting lines**
The Intercultural Mediator reports directly into the Nursing Activity Manager/Project Medical Referent and functionally into the Nursing Activity Manager/Project Medical Referent / Intercultural Mediator Referent.
Supporting the communication and interaction between beneficiaries (migrants and refugees) and care providers in the host country, through addressing consequences of language barriers, socio-cultural differences and discrimination, following MSF protocols and procedures, to improve access to quality health care and other relevant services and providing MSF with an understanding of local socio-cultural determinants.
**Main tasks and responsibilities**
**Facilitating the relation between patients and the care providers involved in medical consultations, mental health, SRH activities and social worker sessions, etc. through**:
- Providing quality and culturally sensitive interpretation between the care providers and the patient (trialogue) in his/her mother tongue (source language / target language). Supporting intercultural awareness, sensitiveness and clear communication between the parties
- Assisting care providers and patients in addressing negative consequences of socio-cultural differences, to support the therapeutic/social intervention through sharing with the care providers relevant aspects of the cultural background of the patient, acting as a cultural broker. Identifying and reporting barriers impairing fairness and equality in access to services.
- Accompanying and following up beneficiaries to referrals (health and social care facilities) as needed.
- Participating in case management meetings medical meetings on ad hoc basis
**Together with relevant project team members, providing information to beneficiaries on the use of **the health care system and other support services (shelter, food, transport, legal support) provided by MSF and other actors, with the aim to favor empowerment and autonomy of beneficiaries **in "navigating" the hosts societies.**
**Contributing to context understanding and data collection on medical/humanitarian issues, with a **specific attention to vulnerabilities, to provide reliable information for operational decision-making **through**:
- Ensuring quality linguistic and intercultural interpretation during the collection of testimonies for advocacy/ communication purposes.
- Supporting administration of assessments/ surveys when needed
- Reporting all important information expressed by the beneficiaries and the communities, always ensuring confidentiality
- Supporting media reviews and content creation for communication
**When requested supporting other MSF activities (HP activities, NFI distribution, crowd control, etc.), guaranteeing confidentiality, impartiality, and neutrality. Declaring conflict of interest.**
**Specific Context Accountabilities**
It is essential to be flexible to move in these locations accordingly to the project needs. As we work in a volatile context it is required to be flexible in term of time-shift and task according to the project's needs.
Qualifications:
**Profile and qualifications**
Education
- Essential secondary education.
- Desirable degree in social sciences, social communication or teaching
- Training in interpretation or intercultural mediation is an asset.
Experience
- Minimum two years' experience in similar position, preferably in provision of medical services and/or with NGOs
- Previous experience in migration/refugee contexts
Languages
Proficiency for MSF language English and/or French desirable, minimum of C1 in Italian is essential.
Mother tongue/C2 for at least one or more of those specific languages required is essential
- Bengali
- Bambara
- Mandinka
- Khassonke
- Malinké
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