Computer skills for 100 Sri Lankan students

Benefits of eVillage Project

The benefits of making Mahavilachchiya a model e-village are endless.

1. Children

The work of Horizon Lanka has already seen success by making village students IT professionals. Public schools in rural areas have poor resources, meaning that subjects like ICT are often overlooked. By providing children access to computers and the internet, they can learn to use these tools to improve their standard of work and stand them in the same ground as students from city schools. Opening communication links between children from other schools will bring about better understanding and perhaps a sharing of resources. Horizon Lanka is helping the public schools, temples, etc. by providing computers and Internet so that more children in the village can benefit.

2. Healthcare

The Local hospital, doctors, nurses, midwives and pharmacies have very limited means of communication with each other presently. This specific section of the community is probably one of the most important. The Horizon Lanka Foundation project donated a used PC to the hospital and hopes to provide Internet access to the hospital if mesh network can be extended to that area too. If the health workers use IT, hopefully it will cut down time wastage, improve record keeping and provide a better sharing of information. More importantly, patients can begin to seek health advice from the internet rather than traveling to see a doctor. We hope to initiate a telemedicine project by combining Mahavilachchiya hospital with a city hospital if there is necessary funding and government help.

3. Banking

The community can access their bank accounts using internet now from their homes. Information on accounts and services can be accessed without having to travel and waste time in queues. Most of the Sri Lankan banks provide online fund management facilities and they respond to queries send as emails, so the people do not have to spend on phone calls and traveling to Anuradhapura town anymore for most of the banking needs now.

4. Information Services

The need for disseminating information quickly is sometimes of the utmost importance especially in a crisis like a national disaster, war or drought. Presently supplying the rural areas with this information has been near impossible. Public information suppliers from NGOs and government can now access the rural communities. Thus the community will begin to feel less isolated and become more interested in what is happening in the rest of the country.

5. Community

ICT in the rural village will benefit the community the most. Farmers now have easier access to wholesalers, weather reports, crop prices, and other relevant information which will facilitate their work at harvesting time and during the year. For the unemployed, access to information from the multimedia library and internet will help them in searching for employment. Gaining ICT skills will be beneficial for their future employment as well. Communication between villagers will be enhanced. With access to the web at home and now the knowledge to use it, families can talk with each other using web mail and IP Telephony services like Skype, all without any cost to themselves. Horizon Lanka’s eVillage concept is now being replicated islandwide and we will talk about that in the next edition of this online magazine.

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