Intercultural Educator

Intercultural Educator for Oromo/Amharic or Tigrinya or Somali, any Sudanese Language

Purpose of the position:

Create the bridge between beneficiaries (people on the move, migrants and refugee communities) and care providers (MSF and/or supported services) in the host country (arrival/transit/destination). The aim is to ensure fair and equal access to health care and other relevant services by addressing potential negative consequences of language barriers, socio-cultural differences, discrimination and tensions. 

This position focuses on educating and informing clinical departments to better understand the patient cohort and their corresponding culture, by conducting briefings, developing presentations and creating written documents. (Approximately 50% of working hours). 

Accountabilities:

Contribute to the provision of quality and cultural sensitive services, facilitating the relation between patients and the care providers involved in medical consultations, mental health sessions (individual and group), intake sessions, physiotherapy sessions, social worker sessions, nursing and triage activities, dispensary etc. 

• Ensure quality interpretation between the care providers and the beneficiaries in their mother tongue making the words of the care provider understandable to the patient and vice versa meanwhile ensuring intercultural awareness. The consultation is driven by the care provider.
• Assist care providers and beneficiaries in addressing potential negative consequences of socio-cultural differences, different visions and knowledge on health provision- such as misunderstandings, fears, misperception, stereotype and prejudices, tensions- with the aim to support the therapeutic intervention: intercultural mediation and cultural brokerage (e.g sharing important aspects of the beneficiary’s cultural background with the medical/MH staff,  to be considered for the treatment and vice versa); assess, identify and report barriers impairing fairness and equality
• Ensure accompaniment of patients in case of referrals to external services when needed
• Contribute to context analysis and data collection related to medical/humanitarian issues and cultural awareness, in order to provide reliable information for operational decision-making.

Guarantee the confidentiality, impartiality and neutrality. Declare conflict of interest.

Willingness to work flexible hours if required. (Including evenings or weekends on a frequent basis according to needs). 

Context specific Tasks: 

• When need arises, take responsibility for appointment booking and CM allocation for clinical sessions, including use of the EMR.
• Contribute to data collection and analysis regarding patient demographic, patient language and interpretation sessions delivered.
• Confidently conduct cultural briefings and inductions for clinicians; providing contextually relevant information for clinicians who have not before worked with interpreters and require orientated to the migrant/refugee cotext.
• Identify areas for cultural briefing/education beneficial for clinical departments, prepare and deliver presentations to increase clinical deparments awareness and knowledge on the patient cohort.
• Work towards creating a “country-profile database” that reflects the attitudes and values of the target nationality/patient cohort.
• Carryout any written translation when requested to support clinical and all supporting departments (incl. Front Desk & Health Promotion).
• Responsible for mentoring and shadowing less experienced members of the team (Daily Workers and new staff etc…)

Assist and support with any departmental responsibilities and tasks issued by the Cultural Mediator Supervisor, in addition to more general tasks issued by the Patient and Community Relation Activity Manager (PCR).