Job Details

Job Description

Employment Opportunity

Family Legacy is a Christian organization that exists to glorify God by equipping vulnerable children in Zambia to live out their God-given potential.  Since the year 2000 Family Legacy has been working in various communities throughout Lusaka, Zambia to transform the lives and futures of vulnerable and orphaned children. Family Legacy employs 700 staff, serves over 11,000 orphaned and vulnerable children in Lusaka, and runs 3 key programs: a) Camp Life; b) Tree of Life Children’s Village; and c) 18 Legacy Academy schools.

The organization seeks to recruit a suitably qualified, experienced, and competent individual who is committed to the organization’s mission, vision, and values, to be based in Lusaka, for the following position:

Social Services Officer – Child Safeguarding & WASHM

Job Summary

The Social Services – Child Safeguarding & WASHM Officer is responsible for implementing and monitoring child safeguarding policies and WASHM (Water, Sanitation, Hygiene, and Menstrual Health) initiatives at the operational level. This role involves the direct execution of safeguarding protocols, conducting risk and needs assessments, and providing frontline support to children and families. The Officer also leads the implementation of WASHM activities within schools, ensuring that students have access to safe water, improved sanitation, and appropriate hygiene and menstrual health practices. Working closely with staff and school communities, the Officer ensures daily compliance with child safeguarding standards across all programs while strengthening health and hygiene awareness through impactful WASHM projects.

Dimensions of the Role:

The Social Services – Child Safeguarding & WASHM Officer is responsible for:

• Frontline Safeguarding Implementation: Directly implementing child safeguarding protocols, conducting initial assessments, and providing immediate support to children and families
• WASHM Project Execution: Implementing WASHM activities in schools and communities, including hygiene education and resource distribution
• Documentation and Reporting: Maintaining accurate records of safeguarding cases and WASHM activities while ensuring confidentiality
• Community Engagement: Building relationships with children, families, and community members to promote safeguarding awareness and WASHM practices
• Compliance Monitoring: Ensuring adherence to safeguarding and WASHM standards at the operational level

Key Responsibilities:

Child Safeguarding and Protection Implementation

• Participate in the development and review of policies and guidelines on child safeguarding
• To ensure that program activities are well planned, properly designed for the safety of children, in responding to “do no harm”
• Ensure child participation in decision making by establishing and strengthening child rights clubs in schools in liaison with the Legacy Academy staff
• To draw plans and initiate ways for the inclusion of children in program/project activities
• To receive response feedback from the children and to address their feedback timely manner that hedges on safeguarding concerns
• Initiate innovative, well-packaged awareness messages on safeguarding and ensure distribution of various safeguarding materials for sensitization
• Undertake risk assessment audit and develop risk mitigation plans
• Ensure compliance to safeguarding and protection policies and procedures
• Identify potential risks to children and young persons in all project and program activities and events, working with programme teams to plan mitigating measures
• Participate in the development, review and strengthening of safeguarding mechanisms for effective safeguarding coordination
• Support necessary tools and knowledge relevant to local context and policy guidance
• Conduct awareness sessions among community members (caregivers) and other stakeholders in area of assignment through safeguarding talks/sessions
• Work closely with the Social Services Coordinators to achieve the core program objectives both in qualitative and quantitative aspects
• Build up the capacity of the Social Services officers on child safeguarding and child protection for effective delivery on caregiver participation and engagements
• Prepare and submit monthly, quarterly and annual reports for consolidation

Safeguarding Case Management

• Ensure identification, assessment, documentation, referral to relevant services (both externally and internally) and follow-up of at-risk children and families with assurance of respect to confidentiality and following ethical guidelines
• Organize and implement trainings on safe recognition and referral and case management when needed
• Ensure the documentation and reporting of both closed and newly identified cases while maintaining confidentiality and proper management of case files, registers, and databases. Prepare and submit comprehensive reports highlighting implemented outreach activities and providing an overview of case management progress
• Document best practices and case studies, ensuring field-level successes and challenges are effectively communicated to the Deputy Program Manager
• Monitor and conduct regularly (case file audits, case review meetings, and home visits to the cases, and case closure interviews)
• Child Monitoring of all Children with safeguarding issues (pregnancy, maternity reintegration, e.t.c)

WASH-M Program Planning and Implementation

• Participate and implement WASH strategies, work plans, and budgets, often in collaboration with other teams and local partners
• Conducting stakeholder and caregiver engagement and hygiene promotion activities, such as handwashing campaigns, sanitation awareness sessions, and waste management programs
• Providing innovative promotional materials on menstrual hygiene
• Facilitating and ensuring that Legacy Academies participate in commemorative days on WASH and menstrual hygiene
• Conducting community mobilization and engagement on hygiene practices
• Facilitating hygiene promotion sessions, workshops, and campaigns
• Initiate sanitary hygiene innovations for sustainability for students to help improve on class attendance
• Working with schools to establish and maintain sustainable WASH systems
• Advocating for improved WASH practices and policies at the local and national level

Monitoring, Evaluation and Accountability

• Documentation of success stories and lessons learnt for impact reporting
• Preparing result-based reports on program progress, challenges, and lessons learned safeguarding and child protection
• Monitoring the progress of WASH activities and reporting on results
• Collecting data and documenting lessons learned from WASH interventions
• Ensuring timely and accurate WASH reporting to relevant stakeholders
• Tracking progress, and reporting on the effectiveness of WASH interventions, ensuring adherence to quality standards and donor requirements
• Managing WASH resources and supplies as required
• Undertake WASH-M audits
• Participating in the development of WASH proposals and fundraising activities
• Ensuring and supporting health and WASH-M inspections

Partnership Coordination and Collaboration

• Capacity building of the stakeholders and partners through collaborative participation and regular follow up and visits
• In collaboration with the Social Services Coordinators and Deputy Program Manager, develop and roll out the capacity building plan of the stakeholders/partner (Caregivers/parents)
• Organize monthly meetings with implementing partners to discuss progress and challenges
• Participate in weekly coordination meetings (case conferences) at inter-agency level with Social Welfare and anywhere need arises
• As assigned represent FLMZ at coordination meetings (e.g, Child Protection Committees) and participate in the strengthening of the Child Protection and referral systems
• Working with local authorities, community leaders, and other partners on WASH initiatives
• Coordinating WASH activities with other sectors (e.g., health, nutrition)
• Building the capacity of local communities (LA caregivers) and partners on WASH-related issues
• Working with local authorities, community leaders, other NGOs, and relevant stakeholders to ensure effective coordination and collaboration on WASH activities
• Advocating for improved WASH practices and policies at the community and district level
• Participate in meetings for collaborative impact in legacy programming (e.g. WASH working groups, Ending Child Marriage, GBV Networking Group etc.)
• Lead on the mapping of the available services in areas of intervention (Health, Education, entrepreneurial linkages for caregivers, etc.), and update the partner directorate periodically

Capacity Building

• Provide training/orientation as to enable staff with key responsibilities to undertake their roles and mainstream safeguarding functions
• Support capacity building for staff, or students, interns or stakeholders (caregivers) to deliver Safeguarding engagements at the Legacy Academy or Tree of Life
• Ensure all staff, interns, caregivers, students receive, consent and sign the safeguarding policy/code of conduct
• Ensuring a clear and pragmatic reporting and referral system of alleged abuse
• Training local communities, hygiene promoters, and other relevant stakeholders on WASH-related topics
• In collaboration with the Supervisor identify capacity building requirements of the case management staff and deliver technical trainings including for partner’s staff
• Participate in the project donor reports writing with the support of the Project Coordinator and Program Manager
• Conduct trainings for relevant local NGOs and local authorities on Child Protection and safeguarding

Desirable

• Must have a Strong Christian ethos and principle
• Extensive experience in Child Safeguarding (CSG)/Prevention of Sexual Exploitation Abuse and Harassment (PSEAH), including case management and investigation, with a strategic and analytical approach to safeguarding
• Substantial experience in child protection, PSEAH, SGBV, or MEAL issues and practices, with a proven ability to lead or participate in investigations
• An understanding of the local context, especially Lusaka

Academic and Professional Requirements:

• Bachelor’s in any Social Science, Gender, Child Protection Human Rights, Humanitarian Law, Communication for Development, Law, Public Policy, or related degree
• 3-5 years of experience in similar environment (working with schools and communities)
• Exposure in the NGO/INGO environment

How to apply :

Follow the link below:

www.careers-page.com/familylegacyzambia#openings and complete the application process.

Closing Date: 25th August 2025 at 17:00 hours.