Support for the Muslim Women Network (AMF) in Germany
About AmF (Aktionsbündnis muslimischer Frauen)
The non-profit association Aktionsbündnis Muslimischer Frauen e.V. (AmF) actively promotes the interests and needs of Muslim women in German society. It is the largest association- and party-independent Muslim women’s organization. In addition, it is closely linked to other organizations and strengthens the social participation and women’s rights.
It is the AmF’s clear conviction that a pluralistic society with encounters at an equal level is a benefit for all people. In doing so, the AmF acts equally on a political – as well as on an interpersonal level.
Their numerous activities always focus on one goal: the equality of Muslim women in professional and private life.
Today Muslim women achieve higher educational and professional qualifications: they are teachers, lawyers or self-employed. Furthermore, they participate in intercultural dialogue and many sociopolitical activities. Nevertheless, they are still a huge “unknown entity” when it comes to the political discourse.
This is where AmF reacts with statements on current political issues, targeted political education work and the creation of spaces for empowerment and networking. The project “Muslim Women for More Participation”, funded by the Robert Bosch Stiftung, is an excellent example.
Where we intended to go
The aim of this project is to reduce barriers that women from visible minorities are facing when trying to enter the labor market. Name, appearance or (presumed) religion can become a hurdle – in spite of high qualifications. To counteract this situation, clarification about professional opportunities is not the only crucial factor, but also effective networking among the right people within the large network.
Every career seeker knows how important the right connection can be for professional success.
However, effective networking among each other indispensably requires easy access to a well-structured and a powerful database. When searching for an appropriate solution, dmc-smartsystems and the AmF met face to face for the first time and kicked off their joint project!
So far, AmF’s hard-working employees had exchanged this important profile information among each other via manually synchronized Excel spreadsheets. This enabled them to find the right match for a new request for help in the existing network. Although this was manageable within such a large network, it entailed a tremendous amount of administrative work and handling was additionally complicated by Excel’s limitations.
Where we started from
One subtask of the funded project was to replace the outdated Excel system with an intelligent database. For this purpose, a web application with database connections should be created by dmc-smartsystems. Further requests: an easy-to-use interface and a sophisticated user concept for all members. In the end, everyone should be enabled to manage the individual profile.
The project was started on the simple consent that a new solution is needed but precise specifications had to be set up. There were no technical guideline or user concept documentation – just a desire for improvement and this one guiding idea.
For this reason, we decided to work very closely with AmF in an agile project. The requirements were clearly defined step-by-step, and AmF was free to continuously review its own requirements and modify them if necessary.
This approach proved to be absolutely perfect, because it allowed a sparkling initial idea to turn – step by step – into a customized solution: a powerful Django application.
The collaboration with AmF went extremely well! Due to their communicative nature and constant availability for our developers’ queries, a positive and creative project climate existed from the very beginning.
The solution
Thanks to such excellent teamwork, it is no surprise that the project ended up as a great success. Their individual solution, enables AmF to establish the expert contact quickly and easily with a browser. A skill search function intuitively leads through a newly developed keyword search system for female employees directly to the target. Furthermore, intelligent cross-references simplify menu navigation and the operation of the web application itself.
The most important feature, however, is that experts can now manage their own data records and initiate updates to the database. Continuous synchronization of Excel tables is now no longer necessary – a considerable administrative relief for the AmF staff.
We are very happy to have made a small contribution to the success of the AmF here and wish them continued success with their activities!
