NGO Atina

Project title: Making a Difference for Refugee Children in Europe

INTRODUCTION

NGO Atina was founded in 2003, as a response of women's movement activists in Serbia to the issue of human trafficking and the lack of adequate programs for long-term support of the victims and assistance in social inclusion. At the time, there were several organizations active in this field, which were providing short-term and non-structured assistance to victims of human trafficking - through accommodation in shelters and counseling through a hotline. Hence, the idea of NGO Atina was the change in focus from the current basic assistance programs (which are completely inadequate when it comes to achieving the long-term effects in the treatment and inclusion of identified victims of human trafficking) to the more general one - an approach based on knowledge of, and respect for, human rights, notably the rights appointed in the CEDAW Convention and the Convention on Children’s Rights, through prevention of gender-based violence, influencing the causes of entering the situation of trafficking, and empowering victims of this type of flagrant violations.

Given the lack of standards for evaluating the success of the existing programs, and the results of research that questioned the reasons why victims refuse a variety of assistance programs, Atina’s starting point is the creation of program activities according to the demands and needs of victims, and thus the program has been profiled as a program for SOCIAL INCLUSION, as opposed to the existing programs - REHABILITATION, with indications of (RE)INTEGRATION. The key difference, among other things, is the effort of NGO Atina to use its interventions, with full participation, cooperation and consent of the beneficiaries, in order to affect the causes of entering the situation of trafficking – relations in primary and secondary family, poverty, marginalization and discrimination, inability to exercise fundamental rights, and other.

In the field of migration policy, in collaboration with the Group 484 and Save the Children, Atina actively participated in the analysis of the phenomenon of children on the move in the Republic of Serbia and the formulation of recommendations for the improvement of their care.

In the context of the refugee crisis, Atina has provided support through mobile teams with a focus on women and children victims of trafficking and gender-based violence and, as such, has provided support for tens of thousands of refugees.

RATIONALE

The proportion of children among the arrivals in Europe continued increasing despite the fact that Balkan route was closed. Between August and December 2015, a total of 147,727 children (62% boys and 38% girls) were registered entering into Serbia and approximately 13% of them were children with disabilities. Most of the unaccompanied children traveling through Europe are older, 14 years and above, and are particularly vulnerable as they move through the major trafficking routes in the region. There are no correct statistical data on unaccompanied and separated children, causes of separation or coping mechanisms in transit. Children arriving to Southeastern Europe continue being a highly vulnerable population, often physically exhausted, scared, distressed, and in need of medical assistance. Especially after closing the Balkan route, children are forced to cross the border illegally and also to hide their age so they can continue their journey.

The biggest gap in working with children from refugee population is inconsistent use of formal referral mechanisms between the Serbian authorities and humanitarian agencies working on child protection. Many agencies report that child protection is one of their core activities, especially the identification and referral of unaccompanied and separated children; however, there were no formal referral mechanisms on the ground in any sites. In some locations, there were informal referral pathways, but understanding and use of those mechanisms varied according to each organization. Also one of the huge gaps is that there is no feedback on referrals. Across the country, there were significant programming gaps for child protection, and in particular case management of sensitive cases such as unaccompanied and separated children and safe spaces for youth. There are no appropriate alternative care arrangements for unaccompanied children. At each site they were accommodated in the same general accommodation area as all others. Foster care services were identified as a potential solution but lacked language capacity and are challenged to accept older youth.

SCOPE OF WORK

Expert in designing a training program on age-appropriate and gender-sensitive cultural mediation and case management practice will actively work on creating a program that will raise capacity of all field workers who work with refugee children in order to provide adequate direct support. The specific activities will be:

1. Development of methodology for training program on age-appropriate and gender-sensitive cultural mediation and case management practice - developing the methodology which will provide a frame for training program which raises capacity of all field workers.

2. Development of training program on age-appropriate and gender-sensitive cultural mediation and case management practice – the program should be created for field workers (interpreters, social workers, psychologists, etc.) who provide direct assistance to refugee children. The program should have guidelines on how to provide services with regard to age, gender and culture of the refugee child.

3. Training – training program will be held for field workers from different institutions and civil society organizations.

OBLIGATIONS AND RESPONSIBILITIES OF THE EXPERT IN DESIGNING TRAINING PROGRAM ON AGE-APROPRIATE AND GENDER-SENSITIVE CULTURAL MEDIATION AND CASE MANAGEMENT PRACTICE ARE TO:

• Become familiar with all the relevant legal framework and documents of concern for children, specifically refugee children;

• Develop a methodology for creating a training program on age-appropriate and gender-sensitive cultural mediation and case management practice;

• Develop a training program on age-appropriate and gender-sensitive cultural mediation and case management practice;

• Hold two training sessions for field workers from different institutions and civil society organizations;

• Establish contacts with different systems (judiciary, health and social protection system) in order to gather valuable information about refugee children;

• Attend meetings with project manager and staff of NGO Atina;

• Write short, weekly progress reports of conducted activities;

• Participate in education and training which Atina organizes with the purpose of improving the assistance program for children refugees.

TIMEFRAME

These activities are to last five months and should finish by 31 January 2017.

BUDGET:

NGO Atina will negotiate number of days of engagement with the selected consultant on the basis of the financial offer (gross amount) that will classify the following:

*Add columns as needed depending on the number of activities needed to perform the assignment

Subtotal GBP__________

Other costs (specify) GBP__________

TOTAL GBP__________

The total cost should cover all preparatory work regarding data collection, communication costs between Project team, consultants and organizations (e-mail, telephone, fax, mail).

BIDDING PROCEDURE

Interested consultant should develop and submit the bidding proposal in English language to respond to above mentioned specific tasks no later than 14 October, 2016. The bidding proposal should include:

1. Description and contact details of the expert applying;

2. A clear description of the methodological approach, including proposal of the training program on age-appropriate and gender-sensitive cultural mediation and case management practice;

3. A detailed Budget Proposal (in the required form);

4. CV of expert involved emphasizing only relevant experience;

5. Past performance in similar areas of a consultant applying, with reference of previous contracting agencies.

SELECTION CRITERIA

Project team will make a decision on the selection of the most successful bidder, subject to the available budget, on the following four criteria:

• University degree in the relevant field;

• A minimum of 3 years of relevant experience;

• Experience of the candidate in performing similar projects or programs;

• An example of previous work as a reference of previous experience is desirable.

DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSION OF BID

All bids need to be submitted no later than 14 October at 17:00h in electronic version, to the email marija.cvejic@atina.org.rs. A selection will be made no later than 17 October 2016 and the selected consultant will be contracted no later than 18 October 2016.

Only the selected candidate will be informed.