I am Ruvini Senevirathna. And I am Dinesh Pradeep Kumara

We have a ten fold comprehensive plan at Horizon Lanka. We appreciate if you can add more suggestions to this plan.

•  CREATING AN ICT CULTURE IN MAHAVILACHCHIYA

We believe that there should be an ICT culture in Mahavilachchiya. Every student in the village is encouraged to buy at least a used computer. This makes PCs common tools at village households. Even non-Horizon Lanka students can study ICT at our houses. We hope to produce more IT skilled youth from our village. We designed a dedicated website for our village and you can visit this site at www.mahavilachchiya.net .

•  IMPROVING ICT INFRASTRUCTURE AT HORIZON

Thanks to Mr Chas & Mrs Lovina Charles, now we have a spacious building for a computer lab and a language lab. At present we have 20 computers. Our lab is open 24 hours a day and is used primarily for group lessons and demonstrations. Here internet can be used free of charge.

•  ICT AND ENGLISH TRAINING

Students are given computer training on both hardware and software at the Horizon Lanka. The students are exposed to new technology and are expected to share that knowledge. They are encouraged to use their school vacations to improve their computer skills with extra training.

•  Higher Education In ICT

All the students are groomed from Grade 1 for further education in ICT. On leaving school, Horizon Lanka tries to give all students more training in order to prepare them for the job market. There is potential for us to begin e-learning. IDM computer school provides our youth free scholarships to learn IT at their islandwide branches. Horizon Lanka's founder, Mr Wanni's dream is to send one of the Horizon Lanka students to study at MIT in the United States .

•  Computer As An Educational Tool

At Horizon Lanka, students are encouraged to use educational software as much as possible. We need CD ROMS promoting subjects such as science, mathematics and social studies. We also hope to start e-learning if someone can help us. And with internet access, we are ensured up to date information whenever we search for it.

•  Help Bridging The Digital Divide

We have donated some computers to the public schools, temples and even the local police station with the idea of bridging the digital gap. We give ICT training to both the young and old in other villages too. We are helping ICT educational projects in Ampara, Moneragala, etc. now.

•  Internet Access

Our policy is to make use of Internet to its maximum to be productive. But we had to operate without Internet for 6 years from 1998 to 2004. However, unlimited internet access came when we built a tower and got internet from LankaCom. We expect to give the online experience to all the village children. Recently we were able to provide internet access to 3o households and a public school free of charge by using mesh technology.

•  Promoting e-Commerce

Villagers constantly fail to market their agricultural products at a good price as any profit always seem to end up lining someone else's pocket. We are seeking ways to help farmers by perhaps utilizing e-commerce. For an example, we can market quality bee honey, agro products and fresh water fish from our village using the Internet. However, our knowledge in this area is still limited but we hope to improve it in the future.

•  Providing Communication Facilities

The people of the village find it difficult to contact each other due to the lack of communication facilities. The demand for this method of communication is high. We don't have a single mobile phone company covering Mahavilachchiya. Having listened to our request, Dialog Telekom provided mobile coverage within 50 meter radius around Horizon Lanka last year. They are going to cover the whole village soon on our request.

•  Creating Job Opportunities

Under our training program, we train senior students to teach the younger. Talented students are given further training. We need more training and job opportunities for our students now. We are about to start a BPO project in Mahavilachchiya soon to create more jobs for IT skilled youth. (Download the PowerPoint slide slide here)

Thank you.