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Horizon Lanka Foundation (Nandasiri Wanninayaka)
2004: Explorers Foundation invested $3,000 in Horizon Lanka
 



Our vision is to make rural Sri Lanka as technologically
advanced as any metropolis whilst retaining
its culture and sense of community

http://horizonlanka.org

 
Nandasiri Wanninayaka (Wanni) decided that the children of his rural village needed good education. He began with a few students, using a single bench as a classroom. After a few years the school had come to the point where it could make good use of full-time high-speed connection to the internet. The village is far from such a connection. A radio tower needed to be built. We helped fund it. The tower has been providing good service for a few years now.
We know Wanni through Mark Frazier, of Openworld Institute. Shannon Ewing has visited the school and taught English there.
A picture of the tower
October 13, 2007: Please click the following links to watch a wonderful video clip on Mahavilachchiya's mesh Internet project. —Wanni (Nandasiri Wanninayaka)
Articles about Horizon Lanka
http://www.horizonlanka.org/media/index.html
Village with a mesh network, but not a single telephone

Published by samarajiva November 6th, 2006 in General.
Sri Lanka’s first outdoor wireless computer network is now up and running.
 
Surprisingly, it is not in Colombo. It is not even in any of the other key places. It was installed in Mahavilachchiya, a little known village, 40 km from the nearest town Anuradhapura, and surrounded three sides by the Vilpattu jungle.
 
Most of the villagers are either farmers or labourers with a monthly income of about Rs. 5,000 -  10,000 (US$ 50 - 100). Though there is electricity, it is not yet covered by any of the terrestrial or mobile phone networks. This means there is not a single telephone in this village.
 
On the other hand, Mahavilachchiya has more than 50 PCs and a sophisticated multimedia lab. Majority of the computers are at the houses of the children, who in addition to use them for their studies, design web sites of some of the foreign companies. These PCs are now connected by using the “Mesh Wireless technology” which gives them direct Internet and E-mail facilities.
 
Wireless was the only approach that could be used, as there were no telephone lines the distribution of the houses makes a wired network set up too expensive.

-as reported by Chanuka Wattegama
Nandasiri Wanninayaka, Founder of Horizon Academy
This story relates the realization of a dream of a dedicated virtual community of globally dispersed volunteer Sri Lankan academics, who mobilized Sri Lankan Diaspora for funding; and then formed horizontal partnerships with local and international agencies to set up a computer center in rural Sri Lanka.  It also relates the metamorphosis of an out of work teacher to be the Digital Ambassador for Sri Lanka through training and empowerment.  It is the story of two communities coming together; one virtual in cyberspace, the other a land based poor rural community; one the haves, and the other the have nots; - the empowered, empowering and bridging the digital divide.
Wanni with students (photo)


History of Horizon Lanka Academy
Horizon Lanka Academy is located at Mahavilachchiya, a remote village in the dry zone of Sri Lanka, nearly 240 kms away from Colombo. We embarked on a project to teach English language and computer skills to a group of rural children. When we started in 1998, we had few students and a few wooden benches as our classroom furniture. Our classes were conducted in the open, under the shade of trees.

Today [probably 2004 -leif] we have a Computer Lab, constructed with donations from a few of our friends and benefactors. With the assistance given by a few well-wishers [among them the Explorers Foundation -leif] we constructed a communication tower, and now the students have Internet access on a 24-hour basis. Seven PC's are there, and a number of students have achieved exceptionally high competency levels in English language and computer skills, including web design and presentations.

Links within this Notebook

.oOo.