Community Health Educator

Apply by

January 1, 2025

Know by

March 1, 2025

Depart on

August 29, 2025

Duration

2 years, plus 3 months training

Project description

Karibu Tanzania! Present since 1961, Tanzania is one of Peace Corps’ oldest programs. Community Health Educators support, complement and enhance existing community health services. They support community mobilization and the training and capacity building of community health workers and groups. They promote good health and nutrition for pregnant/lactating mothers, infants, and young children. They encourage healthy behaviors among youth, aim to empower adolescent girls and young women, engage men and boys in health, and advocate for disease prevention and control.

Peace Corps Volunteers (PCVs) work with local health clinics, community groups and schools. Project interventions focus on behavior change communication aimed at raising awareness and action for health, including HIV/AIDS, maternal and child nutrition, water, sanitation and hygiene, and malaria. PCVs conduct programs in schools and support out-of-school youth.

Peace Corps Tanzania promotes gender awareness and girls’ education and empowerment. During service, PCVs look for ways to work with community members to promote gender-equitable norms and increase girls’ sense of agency. As part of their work, they also report on these activities and results achieved.

Volunteers always work in partnership with community leaders and community members. They collaboratively assess local knowledge, resources and needs in order to determine the best and most appropriate interventions and to select sustainable projects that they can undertake during their two-year service.

Examples of Volunteer activities include but aren’t limited to:

• Working with community health workers to run health education sessions.
• Conducting sessions with community groups addressing common health issues.
• Working with peer educators to commemorate global days (i.e. Malaria Day, World AIDS Day).
• Working with health teachers to conduct health education lessons at local schools.
• Hosting youth clubs at local schools (i.e. health club, gardening club, life skills club).
• Designing and developing inexpensive instructional materials (i.e. health murals).
  
  

In collaboration with a community counterpart, PCVs also undertake secondary projects that address additional community needs. Examples of secondary projects include: working with People Living with HIV (PLHIV) on income generating projects, promoting healthy behaviors through sports for boys and girls, improving school or health center facilities, supporting rainwater catchment projects, rehabilitating latrines, or working on local capacity building projects.

While much of the work takes place during weekday daytime hours, some activities, particularly in the community, may occur on weekends. Key dates such as the International Malaria Day and World AIDS Day are opportunities to implement social-mobilization activities, and many PCVs work with their village government to prepare a community-wide awareness event. Volunteer integration in the community is a critical component of Peace Corps service, as is being present in the community, building trust, and developing relationships with neighbors and key community members, such as teachers and religious leaders.

Having a laptop is important as it enables Volunteers to complete required reporting assignments offline and upload them later. While Volunteers may also complete the assignments through local internet cafes or other access points, having a laptop will alleviate challenges of connectivity and facilitate access to training and technical resources for service as a Community Health Educator and for secondary activities. Volunteers may want to consider purchasing personal property insurance to mitigate risks of damage or theft to electronic devices.

Required Skills

Qualified candidates will have a degree in the health or social science sector. Eligible degrees include the following:

• Nutrition
• Social Welfare (Social Work)
• Environmental Health and/or Water and Sanitation
• Health Promotion
• Public Health or Community Health
• Community Development
• Community Medicine
• Medical Doctor
• Nurse or midwife (Associates degree or higher and/or specialty certificate or licensure)
• Community nurse (Associates degree or higher and/or specialty certificate or licensure)
  
  

Desired Skills

• Demonstrated experience mobilizing communities.
• Demonstrated experience working with youth, women, and community groups.
• Self-Starter/Initiative: Demonstrated resourcefulness and creativity to proactively take action with minimal supervision or guidance.
• Accountability: The ability to make conscious decisions to act in accordance with Peace Corps’ expectations, policies, and procedures.
  
  

Please upload a copy of your unofficial or official transcripts when you apply. You will expedite the processing of your application.

Required Language Skills

There are no pre-requisite language requirements for this position. All Trainees will learn the local language throughout PST. PCVs are expected and encouraged to continue improving their local language skills throughout their service. Peace Corps Tanzania provides local language tutoring allowance during service except in the last three months of service.

According to the United Nations, Kiswahili is spoken by over 200 million people and is a communicative language in many East African countries. Many organizations within the United States have termed it a critical language. Tanzania presents a unique opportunity for PCVs to demonstrate accountability for critical language learning that can be used professionally post-service. PCVs selected to serve in Tanzania can demonstrate core competencies of continual learning and initiative by connecting to resources such as Duo Lingo: duolingo.com/course/sw/en/Learn-swahili.

Living conditions

Tanzania has a diverse geography and climate. It can be hot and dry in central Tanzania, hot and humid in coastal areas, and the highland and mountainous areas have cool to cold temperatures seasonally.

During the hottest months (November-February) temperatures in the lowlands range from 90-105 °F, and 70-80 °F in the highlands. During the cold season (June-August), temperatures range from 60-75 °F in the lowlands and coast, and from 40-50 °F in the highlands. There are short rains in November or December, and longer rains between March and May.

Volunteers are placed primarily in underserved rural communities. These communities can be within a few hours of small to mid-size towns, with banks, a variety of shops, markets, local restaurants, and guesthouses. Travel to Dar es Salaam can take anywhere from five hours to three days by road. PCVs generally use public buses as the main mode of transportation.

The host village provides Volunteer housing. It’s typically a stand-alone house. Volunteers may use pit latrines, outdoor bath facilities, and fetch water from a village water source. PCV housing will have been assessed to meet agency safety, security, and health requirements. Access to and/or consistency of electricity and running water in one’s home is not a guarantee. However, many PCVs are beginning to live with those amenities. In all circumstances, Volunteers will want to learn and exercise the core competencies: adaptability and flexible thinking, emotional agility, and problem solving in response to the inevitable challenges of living in a new environment.

Personal appearance is of great importance in Tanzania. Female PCVs are expected to wear modest dresses and long skirts (with covered knees, upper arms, and shoulders) and nice flat shoes or sandals. On Zanzibar or in other coastal Muslim communities, females tend to be more accepted when they cover their heads, which is the custom for women in those communities. When exercising, females should wear a sarong or cloth tied over shorts or yoga pants. Male PCVs should wear slacks, collared shirts, and loafers or other closed toed shoes when presenting themselves professionally. A PCV’s professional appearance, work habits, and positive attitude towards colleagues and community members will go a long way towards helping them gain the respect of their community.

PCVs may witness variations in dress among locals. What’s stated here is the traditional, most widely accepted forms of dress and expectation during Pre-Service Training (PST) and likely throughout your service. You should think of your presentation and dress as an important tool to facilitate your integration into the communities where you will serve, especially at times when your local knowledge and language are just beginning to build. PCVs will learn and practice the core competencies of intercultural engagement and accountability by adhering to dress code norms.

PCVs will encounter different social and cultural norms that require flexibility and understanding. For example, the American sense of privacy in terms of information sharing or physical space doesn’t exist in Tanzania. Volunteers are frequently asked personal questions and people will wonder why a Volunteer might want quiet moments alone. As a foreigner, there is also the added element of curiosity from children as well as adults.

Peace Corps provides a settling-in allowance that can be used to purchase furnishings necessary to make Volunteer houses comfortable on a modest scale. PCVs get a stipend to purchase a bike to assist in their work activities and to make transportation easier.

Feminine hygiene products are provided to Volunteers via the Peace Corps Medical Office or through an allowance where Volunteers purchase them on their own. Those products may not be the same variety or brands that would be purchased in the United States.

Learn more about the Volunteer experience in Tanzania: Get detailed information on culture, communications, housing, and health/crime statistics in order to make a well-informed decision about serving.

Medical considerations

Before you apply, please review medical clearance and legal clearance to learn about the process.

Couples information

Peace Corps Tanzania Can Accept Couples Who Wish To Serve Together. To Serve As a Couple In Tanzania, Your Partner Must Qualify And Apply For One Of The Following Programs

• Community Health Educator
• Sustainable Agriculture Facilitator
• Secondary School Math Teacher
• Secondary School Science Teacher
  
  

Couples will live together with a host family during Pre-Service Training but may be separated for short-term field-based activities if they are in different project sectors. During service, couples will live together in a village house. Due to Tanzania's cultural expectation that whenever a couple lives together, they are by default married, unmarried couples should be prepared to present themselves as married throughout their service.