Islamic Relief Through An Intern’s Eyes.

        This article will describe my internship experience at Islamic Relief Worldwide in its Gaza office. First, it will give a brief introduction about the internship and the intern. Then, it will describe the characteristics of IR from the point of view of the intern. Lastly, it will mention the personal gains from the internship for the intern.

Internship Overview

Location: Islamic Relief Worldwide - Gaza office.

Department: Finance Department.

Position: Intern.

Internship type: starting as unpaid intern, then evolved into paid internship.

Period: Feb - May 2013 unpaid; June-Oct 2013 paid internship

Intern Overview

Education: bachelor of accounting – best student 91.5%

Study abroad: exchange student for academic year at State University of New York at Cobleskill, GPA 3.55, Dean’s List.

Experience: Internship, Lancaster Development Inc, New York, USA; Volunteer, Muslim Hands International, Gaza, Palestine.

For more information about the intern you can visit: www.linkedin.com/in/ahmed6/

How I See IR.

I will describe the IR organization from my point of view.

1. Enabling environment for training.

• As an intern, IR gave me an organized schedule for training. Moreover, I almost have all the accommodations, tools and accessories that other employee have in the organization; a nice desk, telephone, email, etc.

• The finance manager gave me the priority over other employees to participate in training and workshops. 

• I have the chance to participate in the weekly social activities; such as IR staff soccer, and I also joined two trips for the IR staff.

2. Vision driven.

The employees work with the IR mission at the forefront of their sight. I asked some employees about the positives of the working environment. They said that when the work get tedious and the numbers didn’t balance, they healed themselves by remembering that this work is for the needy people, orphans and community.

3. Well organized policies and regulations.

You can easily find manuals, guidelines, and policies if you feel lost.

4. Islamic environment.

I experienced the Islamic environment within the strategy and policies in the workplace. For instance, there is a one hour monthly lecture by an external Muslim scholar. Also, it is permitted for the employees to pray in the nearby mosque. The praying will take 15-25 min.

5. Rotational training.

The finance manager planned a training schedule in which I sat and trained with 5 employees out of 7 in the FD. This training included; processing 10 purchase request; reviewing and recording 5 Murabaha and soft loan transaction; 3 days review of the financial transaction; and processing 5 bank transfers.

Personal gains from the internship:

• Relevant practical experience

From my friend’s testimony, who is a trainee at an accounting firm, he says “almost all his time goes into photocopying, typing and, if he is lucky, recording routine invoices". As for my experience, it was a completely different case. On the first day, I was given my job description and training program. Of course, I learned many things that I cannot mention here due to space constrictions.

• Strengthen my communication skills

I had the chance to communicate with different lines of authority and external parties such as auditors, suppliers and partners.

• Widened my professional network

• SWOT analysis

I had the chance to dig deep and discover my skills, education and personality. I discovered that Microsoft Excel skills could ease my work, so I took an advanced Excel training course. The training really met my expectations.

• Paved the road for my new career

My supervisor at Paltel said to me "your description about the procurement and finance cycle in the job interview was well said and detailed enough". Well, I have to say that without my internship at IR, I could not have gone that far in the interview.

      I hope that I presented an inner look about Islamic Relief and how I, as an intern, perceived the organization and what is the expected environment for the coming employees. I am grateful for everyone that helped me to excel during my time in the IR. IR does not only give experience, it also spreads values.