a) Legal Advisor Internship

b) Psychosocial workers and Counselors Internships

C) SGBV Internship

d) IT Intern

General Information and Prerequisites

• Timeline

AMERA-Egypt accepts volunteer legal advisors and psychosocial workers two times per year in January and July The legal advisors and psychosocial workers must be self-funded and available to work full time with AMERA-Egypt for a minimum of seven months. Applications for internship placements must be received three months prior to the start date of the internship. Selection of candidates and notification occurs two months prior to the date of the internship.

• Training

Legal advisors and psychosocial workers are provided with a two-week-long intensive training course in refugee law and social welfare at the beginning of the internship. In addition, continuing education seminars and case consultation groups are available on a weekly basis.

• Responsibilities

During the course of the internship, the legal advisors work with one or more teams, may act as a focal point or serve on a committee, and are assigned individual cases for representation. Supervision is provided by the legal officers.

The psychosocial workers work with the psychosocial team, are assigned individual social work cases and participate in the development of community social welfare services for asylum seekers and refugees.

• Application Procedure

To apply for an internship placement please send the following documents to egyptinternships@amera-uk.org

a) Cover letter, including the date you intend to start the internship
b) Curriculum Vitae
c) Brief writing sample (less than five pages)-legal advisor applicants only
d) Contact details and email addresses for three references
e) Statement of ability to financially support oneself for the duration of the internship

Legal Advisor Intern

Position Description

The job of the legal advisor intern is full time for 35 hours per week. The legal advisor works under the day-to-day supervision of the programmes director and in coordination with the legal officers.

Requirements

1. English being the official language of the UNHCR Cairo as well as AMERA's office, the legal advisor must be fluent in both oral and written English. Arabic or one of the languages of refugee nationalities in Egypt is a decided asset.

2. A background in law and/or experience working in human rights and/or with refugees and asylum seekers.

3. A Bachelors degree in law or an LLM is preferred, but other Masters degrees or equivalent experience in a related field are also acceptable.

Responsibilities

1. Participate on at least one legal team and as needed, act as a focal point for issues addressed by the team. Teams include the following: Refugee Status Determination, Unaccompanied Minors, Registration and Protection, Gender-Based Violence, Community Outreach and Psychosocial/Medical.

2. Work on cases to be represented which are assigned by the senior legal officer for RSD or the programmes director, complying with the Guidelines on Supervision.

3. Accompany refugee applicants to their interviews with UNHCR (the decision-maker in Egypt) as instructed.

4. Attend all the regular staff meetings and continuing education/training seminars that are held monthly at AMERA. Optional meetings are held weekly at Dr. Harrell-Bond’s flat as well as weekly seminars at the Forced Migration and Refugee Studies Programme at the American University in Cairo with which you will be affiliated.

5. Under the framework of the legal teams, participate in policy development and liaise with the UNHCR, other NGO's and the community on refugee issues.

6. Undertake file management and co-ordination of work on cases within the office and report on any developments.

7. Provide training to new legal advisors and community interpreters on legal issues faced by refugees.

Psychosocial Intern and Counselor Intern

Position Description

The job of the psychosocial intern is full time for 35 hours per week. The psychosocial intern works under the day-to-day supervision of the head of the Psychosocial Team.

Requirements

1. English being the official language of the AMERA- Egypt office, the psychosocial intern must be fluent in both oral and written English. Arabic language or one of the other languages spoken by refugees in Cairo is a distinct advantage. Indispensable

2. A degree in Psychology or social work. Indispensable.

3. A Masters degree in psychology, social work, or a related field. You may also be in the process of completing such a degree.  Desirable

4. AExperience working in human rights and/or with refugees and asylum seekers in a social work capacity. Desirable

5. A minimum of one year of experience providing psychological or social work services to refugees and asylum seekers. Desirable

Responsibilities

1. AMERA’s psychosocial service’s aim is to facilitate the access of refugees with  different emotional, social, vocational, educational, health-related, developmental, and employment needs to the available services. Psychosocial officers inform and advice clients about available services, accompany them to service providers, advocate in their behalf on a case-by-case basis, participate in trainings on health-related issues and work with other teams and partners to expand services to the community.

 The psychosocial workers work with the psychosocial team, are assigned individual social work cases, may act as focal point and participate in the development of community social welfare services for asylum seekers and refugees. Supervision is provided.

 2. AMERA psychology counseling service’s aim is to provide emotional support, psycho education and problem solving skills to refugees living in Cairo. Counselors help refugees to improve their well-being, alleviate distress and maladjustment, resolve crises, and increase their ability to live more highly functioning lives in a supportive and confidential environment.

 The Counselors work with the psychosocial team, are assigned in-house clients, may go out and work with communities and participate in the development of new mental health services. Types of counseling include individual, couples, family and group counseling. 

SGBV Intern

Africa Middle East Refugee Assistance (AMERA), a UK-based refugee rights organization assisting refugees in Egypt. AMERA is seeking an SGBV Outreach Officer intern, with excellent communication skills to manage SGBV outreach project.

 Africa and Middle East Refugee Assistance (AMERA-Egypt) is the leading refugee rights NGO in Egypt. Our Egypt office serves more than 1000 refugees yearly. There are more than 40 staff, interns, and interpreters from Egypt and other countries working in AMERA. It is one of the leading organizations providing legal aid to asylum seekers undergoing refugee status determination with UNHCR, and it has specialized teams dealing with unaccompanied minors survivors of sexual and gender-based violence, and community outreach. The Outreach intern will be required to meet the following criteria:

Sexual and Gender Based Violence

SGBV is a growing project in AMERA that assist Asylum seekers/Refugees with their sexual and Gender based claims.

SGBV works to assist clients who were subjected to sexual violence in Egypt.

SGBV project provides legal and psychosocial assistance.

 Qualifications and requirements  

·    A degree in Gender, development, political sciences, international relations, public policy, law, international human rights law or other human rights related fields.

• Theoretical and practical knowledge of SGBV issues; 
• Demonstrated experience working in Gender, Refugees, human rights, minorities and other vulnerable groups.
• Excellent organizational, analytical, communication and interpersonal skills;
• Fluent in spoken and written English being the official language of the office (Fluency in Arabic is an asset).
• Experience in working with people from different cultural backgrounds.
• Self-motivated, independent, able to function under pressure with minimal supervision.
• Previous experience in national or international human rights NGOs is an asset.

Responsibilities:

• Will have sensitivity training on how to interview SGBV clients.
• Interview SGBV clients in coordination with Psychosocial team member
• Take SGBV testimony.
• Participate in SGBV monthly report.
• Assist in contacting NGOs working on SGBV to assist AMERA clients.
• Accompany SGBV clients to UNHCR Counseling sessions.
• Attend staff meetings.
• Perform research on SGBV services providers in Egypt.
• Perform research on latest Gender issues.

IT Intern

Africa and Middle East Refugee Assistance (AMERA) – Egypt IT internship offers the opportunity to gain hands-on experience working for a technically advanced global organization. You’ll work with an IT professional using leading-edge systems and tools to create innovative solutions. You’ll also get to learn more about AMERA-Egypt, refugees, asylum seekers and future job opportunities.

 The IT Intern is responsible for maintenance of the interactive communication and collaboration system for AMERA-Egypt office. A key responsibility of the IT Intern is to assure the Network System runs smoothly and virus-free, provide system administration and maintenance, ensure data protection and provide end-user support.

 Requirements

1. English being the official language of the AMERA office, the IT intern must be fluent in both oral and written English. Arabic is an asset.

2. A graduate degree in computer engineering or systems engineering; a post-graduate qualification in information technology is preferred. Significant relevant experience can be considered.  

3. Have a minimum of two years experience in the IT field.

4. Technical knowledge of SQL, stored procedures, triggers, jobs, cursors, database optimization, database Administration, backup, disaster recovery procedures.

5. Having good programming skills in Java and JSP is a plus.

6.  Have good experience in TCP/IP, LAN/WAN, and in daily troubleshooting network connections.

7.  Being able to work in groups and under pressure.

8. Very good working knowledge of various I.T. Systems and other associated applications

9. An general interest in human rights is desirable.

Personal Competencies:

1.   Recording, analysis, prioritization, escalation, tracking and feedback of all cases received at the IT department received electronically or via telephone.

2. Secure necessary information (including software and hardware configurations) to identify nature of problem(s) in order to resolve or escalate to a higher level of authority and/or expertise

3. Troubleshooting AMERA application software issues reported by employees

4. Monitor incidents, problems and requests

5.  Report internally and to customers or partners

6.  Maintain a positive, highly professional and proactive attitude towards user inquiries to ensure quality standards and user satisfaction is maintained

7.   Maintaining staff contacts and call/support ticket information within an existing database

8. Follow up and escalate unresolved incidents

9. Determine seriousness and /or potential impact of problems, relying on defined procedures, accessible tools and individual judgment in resolution or referral to higher levels of authority and/or expertise

10.  Maintain the test infrastructure

11.  Cooperate with IT Manager, Management and staff to understand needs to AMERA-Egypt’s IT systems and work in cooperation with the IT Manager to meet those needs.

Specific Responsibilities

1.  Regularly deploy the backup strategy of the file server and the database server.

2. Monitoring all the servers in the organization, ensure they are well protected and functioning properly at all times.

3. Maintain the security of the data of the organization through the central firewall and the different access rights of the users.

4. Installation & maintenance of the laptops, computers and related equipments. Troubleshoot daily problems with computers, printers, scanners and servers if required to make sure they are all in working order.

5. Maintain the whole network and all the connections to the internet (the LAN/ WAN and the wireless routers).

6.  Manage the contacts with the suppliers and service providers for any maintenance or upgrade needed.

7.  Regularly update the anti-virus programs on all computers, and regularly scan computers.

8. Meet periodically with the different team leaders to discuss their needs of S/W systems. Develop these systems in a way that will ensure the consistency and the integration of the data with the main database system.

9. Using SQL, promptly respond to the staff requests in getting reports from the database, or making changes in the data recorded.

10. Continuously maintain the database applications used by the staff. Develop new applications as needed to facilitate the work load and tabulate statistical information.

11.  Undertake any other duties appropriate to the position.

 Reporting

1.      Prepare IT system reports for IT Manager when required.