Fundraising Officer for Baylor College of Medicine Children’s Foundation - Lesotho (LES006 - 001)

Your role will be to raise funds for the outreach programme in Lesotho and to promote regional collaboration between Lesotho , Botswana and Swaziland on issues pertaining to the care and treatment of children with HIV/AIDS with the aim of promoting learning from best practises across the countries.

Country:   top of page

Lesotho is an independent Kingdom in Southern Africa, and is a member of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and the Commonwealth of Nations. Before gaining independence from Britain in 1966, Lesotho was known as Basutoland. The "mountain kingdom" covers an area of about 30,355 square kilometres, and is totally surrounded by the Republic of South Africa. According to UNDP figures, about 80% of the 2.14 million population lives in rural areas. In 2000, Lesotho introduced a comprehensive programme for Free Primary Education resulting in increased primary school enrolment. The country has one of the highest levels of adult literacy on the continent at 81.4% (Human Development Report: 2004).  However, for generations many boys have worked as herd-boys from as young as five or six years. This has been a challenge for the Government to raise low rates of educational achievement among males and reverse this traditional practice of child labour.

The textile industry in Lesotho employs more than 40,000 people and the country depends on garment production for 29% of its GDP. Global textile companies were originally attracted to Lesotho with the offer of infrastructure, a cheap but literate labour force and tax incentives. It has however contributed to the lack of progress in making safe drinking water available for many people in Lesotho. Of all the challenges facing the country, none is more urgent than the HIV and AIDS pandemic, which with an estimated adult prevalence of 28.9%, has a devastating impact on individuals, families, communities and society as a whole. HIV and AIDS related deaths have affected the national economy and led to increased household poverty. The UN estimates that the prevalence rate among women is 51% compared to 28% for men. The staggering number of AIDS orphans forms a crisis of enormous proportions. With Lesotho having the fourth highest incidences of HIV and AIDS in the world, this problem is increasing; over 100,000 children under 17 have lost at least one parent.

Skillshare International, PO Box 269, Maseru 100, Lesotho
Tel: +266 22 314 202 Fax: +266 22 310 156
E-mail: lesothoinfo@skillshare.org

 Duties and Responsibilities   top of page

• To carry out an organisational needs assessment to determine and prioritise areas for which funds should be solicited;

• To network with local donors in order to acquaint oneself about their requirements and interest;

• To develop a fundraising strategy outlining the short, medium and long term strategies;

• Work closely with key stakeholders such as international donor agencies, The US Embassy, United Nations organisations and others with the view to identify funding opportunities for the COE;

• To prepare project proposals and submit to potential sponsors;

• To liaise with the Director of Special Projects based at Baylor International Paediatrics AIDS Initiative on fundraising issues;

• To produce quarterly reports and brief COE management on progress made.

• To periodically visit the partner organisations for the outreach programme to investigate the needs and advise COE management as appropriate.

Supporting Regional Collaboration ( Lesotho , Botswana and Swaziland ):

• To investigate the interest and commitment by the Botswana and Swaziland Governments to initiate a similar model based on Baylor Pediatric Clinic ideology.

• To facilitate meetings between the relevant stakeholders in the three countries

• To develop a concept paper defining specific areas of collaboration e.g. training, research.

• To assist in developing a fundraising strategy to ensure that the collaboration gets implemented.

Job Purpose:

The purpose of the job is to raise funds for the outreach programme in Lesotho and to promote regional collaboration between Lesotho , Botswana and Swaziland on issues pertaining to the care and treatment of children with HIV/AIDS with the aim of promoting learning from best practises across the countries.

Person Specification   top of page

Essential skills and experience

• At least a basic University degree in Social Sciences
• Skills in networking
• Track record in writing project proposals
• Experience in dealing with different development agencies and understanding of government procedures and protocols
• Excellent computer skills especially MS Word, Excel, Power-point
• Excellent communication skills
• Must be in possession of a valid driver’s License
• Must be willing to travel within the region by road and Air

Desirable skills and experience

• Additional degree in Public Health would be an added advantage
• Experience in HIV/AIDS
• Experience in Facilitating

Placement Information   top of page

The Baylor College of Medicine Bristol-Myers Squibb Children Clinical Centre of Excellence Lesotho is a pediatric HIV/AIDS care and treatment centre in Maseru Lesotho . It is the result of a public private partnership between Baylor International Pediatric AIDS Initiative (BIPAI), an entity within Baylor College of Medicine, on the one hand and the Government of Lesotho on the other. The BIPAI Network has established ten Children’s Clinical Centres of Excellence on four continents. The Network gives children and families in resource poor settings access to the same kind of comprehensive HIV/AIDS care and treatment that has transformed the health and lives of children and families elsewhere in the world. Its mission is to conduct a programme of high quality, high impact, highly ethical pediatric and family HIV/AIDS care and treatment, health professional training and clinical research.

BIPAI oversees the operation of the clinic through the Baylor College of Medicine Children’s Foundation – Lesotho , a registered non-profit foundation whose Executive Director is accountable to an independent Board of Governors appointed by Baylor College of Medicine. This model has been replicated throughout the BIPAI Network, including Romania , Botswana , Swaziland , Malawi, Uganda and Burkina Faso . The value of these partnerships lies in combining complementary strengths of the Foundation and the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare (MOHSW) to achieve greater impact and synergy than when operating separately. This partnership approach implies the equal involvement of both parties during assessment, identification of expected results, strategic planning and programme design, and support to implementation, monitoring and evaluation. Besides Ministries of Health, the Foundation currently has working partnerships with UNICEF, USAID, EGPAF, Clinton Foundation, Columbia University , Bristol-Myers Squibb Secure the Future, Abbott Fund and Skillshare International ( Botswana ), as well as various local NGO, Faith Based Organisations (FBO) and community-based projects.

The placement would be in two phases:

Phase 1: Working primarily with Lesotho Baylor College of Medicine Children’s Foundation - Lesotho to support them in soliciting funding during the course of the first year.

Phase 2: To continue with Fundraising issues for Baylor COE as well as working with the Botswana and Swaziland Governments to support the learning from best practises using the Lesotho Baylor Pediatric Clinic as a model during the second year.

Other Information   top of page

The Pediatric Clinic has vehicles that are used and drivers thereto. Drivers would normally transport the development worker to a duty station and or alternatively, he/she can drive the COE vehicle to perform his/her duties.

The Pediatric Clinic has an adequate office space for the development worker to use in their work with ease. We also have computer facilities to use in their work (for example, Microsoft Office Word 2003, Microsoft Office Excel 2003, Microsoft Office Publisher 2003, Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2003 and internet facility (although it’s a dial up facility) – application has been made to the Lesotho Telecommunications Authority for installing a VSAT facility.

Normal office hours shall be 8:00 am – 5:00 pm from Monday to Friday, with up to 1 hour per day allowed for lunch. All public holidays shall be observed as such.

Skillshare International offers a modest living allowance, flights/travel to the placement and back home, medical cover, and pre and post placement grants to assist with relocation. The living allowance is adequate to cover your living costs whilst in the country of placement but not adequate for savings or meeting other costs you may have in your home country of residence.

Child Protection: Working with vulnerable population in development countries, Skillshare International is particularly committed to the protection of children. We use strict screening procedures for development workers, we have a Child protection policy and a guiding Code of Conduct which applies to all development workers.

HOW TO APPLY: Please apply by completing the online Application Form. If you do not wish to apply online, please contact +44 (0) 116 257 6616 or by email: recruitment@skillshare.org requesting a Recruitment Pack quoting the reference (LES006 - 001). Please note that we do not accept CVs.

(Closing date for applications is 18th April 2008)

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