Overview
The Victim Assistance Officer will be responsible for planning, implementing, and monitoring victim assistance activities for individuals affected by explosive ordnance incidents. The role ensures survivors and affected families have access to quality services including medical care, psychosocial support, rehabilitation, livelihood assistance, and referral pathways.
Key Responsibilities
- Lead mapping of services available to EO survivors and affected families.
- Identify referral gaps, quality concerns, access barriers, costs, documentation requirements and transport constraints.
- Develop and update a service directory and referral pathway for EO victims.
- Support identification of suitable local partners.
- Receive and screen referrals from HMA teams, EORE/community liaison staff, protection teams, community structures, NMAC, hospitals and local partners.
- Conduct basic survivor needs assessments.
- Facilitate referrals to emergency medical care, rehabilitation, prosthetics/orthotics, assistive devices, MHPSS, protection services, transport support and economic recovery opportunities.
- Follow up referred cases to confirm service access and identify barriers.
- Ensure survivors and affected families receive clear information on available services and their rights.
- Maintain close coordination with NMAC, NGO partners, hospitals, rehabilitation centers, and protection actors.
- Represent DRC in relevant coordination forums.
- Promote survivor participation in programme design and feedback mechanisms.
- Internally coordinate with DRC protection, economic recovery, and HMA teams.
- Collect and maintain beneficiary data confidentially and accurately.
- Prepare weekly, monthly, and activity reports.
- Monitor progress of victim assistance interventions and flag implementation gaps.
- Maintain secure, anonymized tracking of referrals, service gaps, response times, barriers and outcomes.
- Support MEAL and IM colleagues to analyse trends and use VA data.
- Conduct awareness sessions on available victim assistance services.
- Train community focal points and relevant stakeholders on referral mechanisms.
- Support inclusion of EO survivors in community-based programmes.
Required Experience
- Minimum 2–3 years of relevant experience in victim assistance, protection, disability inclusion, case management, or mine action programming.
- Ideally at least 1-2 years in direct case management.
- Experience working with persons with disabilities, injured persons, survivors of violence, or people with complex protection and health needs.
- Experience working with humanitarian organizations preferred.
Qualifications
Bachelor’s degree in social work, public health, rehabilitation, psychology, protection, disability inclusion, humanitarian action, international development or a related field
