The Peace Corps is a service opportunity for motivated changemakers to immerse themselves in a community abroad, working side by side with local leaders to tackle the most pressing challenges of our generation.
Role Overview
Community Health Facilitators work with community counterparts (CHPs) to promote positive health outcomes and address critical diseases like malaria and HIV/AIDS in Kenya.
Volunteers must be active in finding their niche and identifying where their strengths can be most useful. Flexibility and a positive attitude are important for this project. Volunteers may set their own work schedules, with activities that may occur on weekends, in the evenings, and at various locations in the community. They are trained to use Peace Corps assessment tools to identify and respond to community needs.
Key Responsibilities and Activities
On a typical workday, Community Health Facilitators and their CHP counterparts may conduct the following types of activities:
- Co-training and supporting community-based health organizations that advocate for positive social behavior change, addressing diseases such as malaria and HIV/AIDS, which are top priorities in Kenya.
- Co-facilitating evidence-based interventions that promote positive health outcomes on issues such as safe motherhood and neonatal and child health.
- Collaborating with community leaders to conduct needs assessments, identify community public health challenges, and find sustainable local solutions.
- Their secondary projects may include activities such as planting kitchen gardens, organizing youth sports and camps, and supporting health education activities in schools.
- Peace Corps Kenya partners with community counterparts to promote girls’ education and empowerment. Volunteers are trained on the realities of the societal roles of men and women in Kenya, and together with their Kenyan counterparts, they have the opportunity to co-implement development activities focused on women, men, girls, and boys that are contextually and culturally appropriate, co-facilitating empowerment programs to support both girls and boys in exploring a new paradigm together.
Qualifications and Skills
Required Criteria
Qualified candidates will have one or more of the following criteria:
- Bachelor of Arts/Bachelor of Science degree in any field.
Desired Skills/Qualifications
The most successful candidates will have one or more of the following relevant qualifications:
- BA/BS degree or minor in Nutrition, Health, Nursing, Social Work, Epidemiology, Dietetics, or Community Mobilization.
- Master of Public Health degree or Master of Arts/Master of Science degree in Public Health.
- Certified Physician Assistant or Public Health Nurse with expressed interest in public/community health.
- RN, LPN, LVN Nursing Degree or Diploma, or other post-grad health/medical degree.
- Prior experience working in Maternal & Child Health, HIV/AIDS prevention, Social Work, or Nutrition.
- Volunteer or work experience or coursework in a public health-related field, e.g. HIV/AIDS outreach, sexual and reproductive health education, maternal and child health, contraception and/or family planning counseling.
- Experience with youth development, particularly life skills development, promotion of healthy lifestyles, camps, youth clubs, scouts, etc.
