(Updated on October 22, 2006) Lalithra Fernando, a 12th grade student at El Cerrito High School donated 10 PCs to Horizon Lanka Foundation last month. After visiting Horizon Lanka website, he got to know about Horizon Lanka Foundation.  He realized what Horizon Lanka is doing to improve computer and English skills of the students in rural Mahavilachchiya village of Sri Lanka.  

The TechFutures program at El Cerrito High school had replaced their old computers.  Lalithra Fernando then got the idea of sending the used computers to Horizon Lanka Foundation.  He negotiated it with his instructors and got the green light from the authorities.  Then, the problem of the shipping price arose. 

Rotarian Gary Buffon of Rotary Club, El Cerrito came in for rescue at this point.  The Rotary Club of El Cerrito, after speaking with the Colombo Regency Rotary Club, shipped the items to Colombo.  Colombo Regency Rotary Club had a problem with clearing PCs from Colombo Customs and the Rotary Club of El Cerrito came forward to pay the customs’ costs.

When Lalithra was busy with studies, his mother Mrs. Ranjani Fernando helped us coordinating the donation through emails. Since February this year, we at Horizon Lanka Foundation had very high hopes of receiving these 10 PC’s.  In September, it became a reality. We thank all the parties involved in every aspect of the above operation.

On 23rd September these computers were delivered to us by Colombo Regency Rotary Club.  Immediately we checked these PCs and found them to be of high quality.  

We distributed the PCs among 10 students in Horizon Lanka Academy. These PCs were very helpful in building the mesh network in Mahavilachchiya village and connecting to the Internet. Through mesh technology, we have been able to connect 30 PCs in Mahavilachchiya to the Internet.