Essential Qualifications

• Proven experience in managing safeguarding hotlines, GBV response, or crisis intervention helplines using survivor-centered approaches.
• Established referral partnerships with legal, medical, psychosocial, and, where relevant, financial and regulatory support services to respond appropriately to both safeguarding and corruption-related reports.
• A secure case management system that ensures data protection, confidentiality, and ethical report
• Multilingual capabilities, with mandatory English and Swahili, and additional Kenyan languages spoken by refugees and marginalized communities including PWDs, young women and youth from underserved areas, creatives from economically disadvantaged backgrounds, and ethnic and indigenous minorities, to ensure accessibility and inclusivity.
• Ability to operate 24/7 or during extended hours, recognizing the urgency of safeguarding cases.
• Capacity to provide an anonymous, secure, and user-friendly reporting platform for
• all stakeholders, ensuring accessibility and protection for all users.
• Experience supporting anti-corruption or ethics hotlines and integrating financial misconduct reporting within safeguarding systems, to strengthen internal controls and enhance program integrity.
• A track record of working with development organizations, government agencies, or NGOs in the safeguarding sector.
• Ability to conduct training and awareness campaigns to educate stakeholders on how to access and use the hotline confidently and appropriately

Objectives of the Safeguarding Hotline

• This ToR defines the responsibilities of a service provider tasked with setting up and managing a 24/7 safeguarding hotline for the Sanara Program. The provider will be responsible for:
• Safe, accessible, and confidential reporting mechanism: Provide a toll-free, multi-channel hotline that will be available 24/7, offering immediate, secure, anonymous, and confidential reporting via phone, SMS, WhatsApp, email, and an online reporting platform, ensuring round-the-clock accessibility for survivors and witnesses. Also provide multilingual support for marginalized communities, and ensure data protection through a secure, encrypted case management system.
• Additionally, it will uphold high standards of professionalism, ethical case management, and data security in all reporting processes.
• Survivor-Centered Response and Support: Offer immediate crisis intervention, and psychosocial first aid through trained professionals. The safeguarding hotline will adopt a dignified, trauma-informed approach, treating survivors with dignity, respect, empathy, and without judgment. It will establish clear referral pathways to connect survivors to essential services, including medical support hospitals, rape crisis centers, emergency treatment, legal aid pro-bono lawyers, human rights organizations, law enforcement, psychosocial support counseling, therapy, mental health services, and protection services safe houses, emergency relocation.
• Additionally, the hotline will uphold survivor autonomy by offering professional guidance while allowing them to determine the next steps.
• Accountability and Risk Mitigation: Implement a secure case management system to facilitate the reporting of safeguarding violations related to program activities,partners, and workplaces. The hotline will ensure proper case documentation while upholding confidentiality and data protection laws. It will generate anonymized reports to inform program-level safeguarding interventions and risk mitigation.
• Regular trend analysis and risk assessments will inform HEVA Fund’s safeguarding strategies, with a feedback mechanism in place to drive continuous improvement based on survivor experiences.
• Alignment with HEVA’s Safeguarding Framework: Strengthen HEVA Fund’s commitment to a safe, ethical, and abuse-free creative sector by supporting its safeguarding framework, policies, and codes of conduct. The hotline will work closely with the HEVA team to enhance prevention, response, and accountability mechanisms while contributing to capacity-building efforts through training and awareness for program participants, stakeholders, and service providers.
• Conduct training and awareness campaigns: To educate stakeholders on how to access and use the hotline confidently and appropriately, including orientation on available reporting channels e.g., phone, SMS, WhatsApp, email, and online, guidance on what types of concerns can be reported, assurance of anonymity, non-retaliation, and data protection, and how reported cases are handled and followed up ethically and confidentially.