Our already good EMIS computer system has just got better!

The numbers of children registered with Zvandiri passed 500 this autumn, and may well go over 1000 during 2010. Maintaining effective support to so many individuals requires quite complex information systems, and the programme's existing EMIS system received a major face lift during November.

The new ability to support individual case management with follow up of children not reached (seen) as expected will help the programme move from its successful, but inevitably reactive state, to an even more effective, proactive one. So now the programme's group leaders and community managers can see at a glance what activities were undertaken with which children, where and when. They can see who has not been reached as expected, so that pro-active follow up can take place. In other words the programme now has an information system that supports work at an individual level, at the level of each and every one of its twenty communities, and at the level of the whole programme. It can produce succinct summary reports for donor organisations as easily as it can produce a report summarising the care for each individual within a community group. And of course it can tell senior staff where there are particular areas of strength and weakness within the care provided across the whole programme.

A system that started on a single laptop with a kind donation from EMIS three years ago, and involved little more than 100 children, has now grown up a lot. The server is protected as well as it can be with Uninterrupted Power Supplies and regular backups. Networked laptops are used exclusively by the staff as these are relatively secure in a power cut compared to PCs. And thanks to EMIS each laptop is configured not only to work on the network at Zvandiri House but also remotely in the community.

However, any information system is only as good as the quality of use made of it, and here the Zvandiri team offer an example that many established organisations could well note. Most of them had little or no computer experience before coming to Zvandiri, yet their enthusiasm, willingness to learn, and commitment to doing the right thing in the right way are all resulting in the programme possessing an information system that will provide accurate, meaningful information where and when they want it. That means they will be able to offer better quality support and help to the children of Zvandiri, and that, after all, is what it is all about.