Job: Health Extension Volunteer-Albania (Peace Corps)

Deadline for Applications: July 01, 2017

Before You Apply

You can only have one active Peace Corps Volunteer application, so choose a position that best fits your skills and interest. You have the opportunity to tell us if you’d like to be considered for other openings and more about the ones that interest you most!

Project Description

Health Education (HE) Volunteers are assigned to a community in which they co-teach Health Education at a middle school or combined elementary and high school, and/or work within a regional community visiting several schools co-teaching lessons with “Life Skills” teachers.

A significant component of Peace Corps Albania’s Health Education project is to co-teach students as well as to help train teachers on Youth Sexual and Reproductive Health. Some Volunteers may also liaison with a health education unit or at a community health center to provide staff trainings, which have a long history of being under-resourced. Volunteer placement is typically in smaller towns and rural areas, and no Health Volunteers are placed in the capital city of Tirana.

In addition to classroom teaching and facilitating other health education trainings, Volunteers may also liaison with local health directorates on community-wide health promotion and education campaigns.

In the summer months, HE Volunteers will be leading summer camps and other youth development efforts/activities by working through the schools, or with NGOs that focus their efforts on youth/children, or by taking part in youth-centered projects such as Model UN, Outdoor Ambassadors (an environmental-themed afterschool program begun by Volunteers), Girls Leading our World (GLOW) camps, etc. Volunteers may develop or participate in summer youth camps, promote “life skills” education, tutor students in other school subjects including English; and assist with efforts on the development of school student governments or linkage with projects that promote career development and foster youth employability.

Volunteers, especially those with prior health education-related technical training, may work closely with health education professionals at health centers or NGOs, or with other health professionals, in addition to being at schools and kindergartens to increase their capacities regarding new techniques and methods of teaching preventive health education. Volunteers will also link with NGOs and other community-based organizations to provide basic health education, instruct proper sexual and reproductive health practices, and raise awareness about HIV/AIDS and other emerging health issues.

Some of the HE Volunteers’ work takes place outside the school as well, and Volunteers will likely have more than one main colleague, depending on the projects or activities you are involved in. Health Education Volunteers work with multiple schoolteachers responsible for health education classes, and sometimes with representatives of NGOs (if they are located in the community), as well as with representatives from the District Health Promotion Unit. If you are placed in a school within a community that also has a rural health center, you may also focus on linking directly with the doctors and nurses staffing those facilities and the smaller health posts in the surrounding villages, as well as schools and kindergartens linking them with resources and assistance to improve their skills and implementation of health education efforts. Finding colleagues to work with on diverse projects will not be automatic but will demand a concerted effort on the Volunteer’s part to seek out active community members. For this reason, successful community integration and language acquisition is crucial.

Required Skills

Competitive candidates will have one or more of the following criteria:
• Master of Public Health degree or Master of Arts/Master of Science degree in Public Health
• Certified Physician’s Assistant or Public Health Nurse with expressed interest in public/community health
• Bachelor of Arts/Bachelor of Science degree in Nutrition, Health, or Nursing

For more information, and to apply, click here.