Computer skills for 100 Sri Lankan students

Original Link by a blogger at http://lankarising.blogspot.com/2007/11/tragedy-at-mahawilachchiya-e-village.html

Mahavilachchiya is a village in Anuradhapura, 245 km from Colombo which is surrounded by Vilpattu National Park from three sides and the children of Mahavilachchiya with Founder Mr Nandasiri Wanninayaka CEO of Horizon Lanka Foundation (HLF) are trying their best to make Mahavilachchiya a Model eVillage.

The village of Mahavilachchiya got Internet connections before the village got telephone connections thanks to Mesh technology, a project, donated by UNDP. Mahavilachchiya was selected as the testing ground for Mesh technology as it was the village with the highest density of computers.

Here farmers read online newspapers at home after a hard day’s work with the help of donated computers and Wifi-zones; children study English and IT after school and soon become computer geeks having their own blogs which has helped them, win laptops from donors.

Kumar is a Tamil living in Mahavilachchiya. He was born and bred, and had his primary education in Kalatththewa, Anuradhapura. Guided probably by fate Kumar happened to come to Mahavilachchiya to work at a shop, there he met Mangalika, a beautiful Sinhala village girl, and it was love at first sight. He settled down at Mahavilachchiya with Mangalika and continued to support his brothers and sisters from there.

Kumar missed his family, his childhood friends and many other things from his former life. But he could not leave his wife Mangalika, whom he loved dearly. So, for the last 30 odd years Kumar has been living in Mahavilachchiya. Kumar liked reading a lot and he used to read all the Tamil newspapers he could get hold of before coming to Mahavilachchiya. But now it was very difficult to find a Tamil newspaper in Mahavilachchiya. One has to go to Anuradhapura for that. Kumar could not afford to make this trip very often. So even very reluctantly, he had to say goodbye to his favorite pastime, reading newspapers.

Then he found the answer, or to be more accurate, the remedy, for his loneliness with the advent of the mesh. His children, all of whom are students of Horizon Lanka Academy, were very excited about this great event. He was idly sipping a cup of tea, sitting close to his third daughter Krishanthi, who was browsing the internet. Suddenly Kumar jumped up shouting, “Wait, hold it there!” He had seen a web page written in Tamil, his mother tongue…! This simple incident brought about one of the biggest changes in Kumar’s life. “I had not known that you could read Tamil newspapers over the internet.” He explained to me. “I know that was really stupid of me, I mean, with my kids using internet almost everyday at the Horizon Lanka for the past two years… They never told me about it earlier, may be because I did not ask them…” He laughed. Yes, Kumar laughs very often now, a happy Mangalika told me.

(BPO) operation, which is totally handled by youngsters who are not only fluent in English and Computer knowledge but also play squash and rugger. Mahavilachchiya is the first village to have a Business Process OutsourcingDr. Ashok Junjunwala of IIT India during his visit had suggested that Anuradhapura be made a BPO district with Mahavilachchiya as the base.

The people of Mahavilachchiya, especially the young generation of the village, with generous support from organizations and volunteers from all around the world have been developing new E culture in Sri Lanka which is highly regarded to be a role model for any developing country. They were innocent people depend on agriculture and their kids striving to excel in new technologies without loosing their inherent good qualities being in the village.

I was initially apprehensive about living with a village family but the warm welcome I received and the hospitality that continued throughout my stay soon appeased these fears. I was treated as one of the family, had my own room and everyone, especially the mother of the house, were always keen to hear my opinions on everything from my impressions of Sri Lanka to life in my own home country and what my favourite foods were. - Fionnuala Woods’ Report on Horizon Lanka

However in November 26, the people of Mahavilacchiya mourned. Four civilians including a woman were murdered by Tiger terrorists. They have been working in their fields and terrorists have brutally killed them opening fire at them. It was the day LTTE terrorist leader Velupillai Prabhakaran was celebrating his 53rd birthday and these brutal killings are to celebrate his blood hungry terrorist mission. Defense sources viewed this as an LTTE genocide attempt to cause fear among the villagers forcing them to flee their traditional lands.

The innocent but determined people of Mahavilachchiya have been striving to excel their lives without being burden to the country that they born. They were lucky enough to get the supporting hand from all over the world. However, terrorism can easily destroy hard built new culture within short period. This is crucial time that we should support these people. This time it is by supporting to fight against these blood hungry terrorists.

The breeding ground for terrorism is the ignorance and stupidity and Mahavilachchiya was striving for information and knowledge. In this sense, the attack on Mahavilachchiya E village is a well thought out birthday gift by its carders to Prabakaran. If the terrorists win, the great E-culture that has been developed will be end and it will become another breeding ground for brain washed goons with cyanide capsules in their neck looking for blood. That is why the whole world must support for the fight against terrorism regardless of it being in east or west.

Ref: - LTTE terrorists kill 04 villagers including a woman - Anuradhapura (defence.lk, 11/27/2007) - http://www.horizonlanka.org/ - http://mahavilachchiya.wordpress.com - A Lovely Indian girl, Miss. Alisha Bhagat, visited Horizon Lanka, Mahavilachchiya - Fionnuala Woods’ Report on Horizon Lanka - Lonely lives ‘meshed up’ in Mahavilachchiya. The Happiest Man in Mahavilachchiya…!

Links:

• Lonely lives ‘meshed up’ in Mahavilachchiya.
• A Lovely Indian girl, Miss. Alisha Bhagat, visited Horizon Lanka
• ionnuala Woods’ Report on Horizon Lanka