Introduction
The Gharz Al-Hasna Fund is an independent, self-sustainable non-governmental organization. It operates in the Gaza Strip and it was established in 1998 to provide sustainable socio-economic development to impoverished communities within the Gaza Strip through improving services such as education and health as well as developing infrastructure with the ultimate goal of creating a favorable living condition to help alleviate poverty.
Chart 1: Gharz Al-Hasna Fund Objectives
Goals
The goals of the organization were summarized in four (4) main objectives that are as follows: To improve the level of health and education services, which include providing financial support for students, improving cleanliness and waste management and helping Gaza farmers. Second, it aims to create job opportunities through small business support. Thirdly, it wants to empower women by supporting businesswomen and unemployed women as well as offer counseling services for those who need special care such as widows, divorcees and single mothers. Finally, Gharz Al-Hasna Fund aims to encourage a culture of giving within the Gaza community as well as provide support for those affected by natural disasters and wars.
The Gharz Al-Hasna Fund software was first published in 2014, replacing an older version that was previously used on a local area network. The new software comes with a large number of functionalities that allows the Fund to keep track of its spending and project progress. It is a cloud-based application that ensures better communication between employees, improving the speed by which they can receive, process and manage requests.
The Fund's employees conduct routine field visits for verification purposes, and these are logged through different reports on the system. Project proposals are usually submitted through its website by stakeholders such as donors. A proper financial receipt is needed to be processed which includes information about the amount of money received, donor name, purchase items purchased and warranty details among others. Once a project is approved, the system automatically detects the financial status and gives a percentage that reflects its progress. The system also has a section for uploading pictures with details about project budget amount spent on each item as well as where it is being used. Gharz Al-Hasna Fund employees can access all these details from their own mobile devices using the Gharz Al-Hasna Fund application.
Originally, the Fund was using an older version of MSAccess which could not support large files let alone track real-time data in a lightweight environment while the newer system uses MySQL to store all its statistical data and Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Financial Management (formerly known as Dynamics NAV) for its core functionality. The Fund's staff was trained on how to use the software for a period of four days by the Microsoft Advisor support team at Gharz al-Hasna office in Gaza, Palestine.
The system is currently being used in five different modes: Financials, Administration, Logistics/Inventory, Project and Reporting respectively.
History of Gharz Al-Hasna Fund software
The Gharz Al-Hasna Fund was established in Gaza to provide sustainable socio-economic development to impoverished communities within the Gaza Strip through improving services such as education and health as well as developing infrastructure with the ultimate goal of creating a favorable living condition to help alleviate poverty.
