1. Providing us more PCs and peripherals
2. Providing us an English speaking volunteer
3. Providing an allowance to our two computer instructor (5000 LKR per month)
4. Providing scholarships to our students
5. Providing us a mobile phone and a land phone (CDMA)
6. A digital camera and a video camera

We have been able to change the fate of the whole village with the single used PC we received from Horizon Lanka Foundation. We hope you will help us to equip the nearby villages with ICT facilities.

Most of the students from our area become dropouts due to the lack of teachers in the area. But students have an inclination to learn more if they have access to computers. What you throw out will be good enough for us.

Mr Wickramasingha Hettiarachchi, the Head Master of the small public school at Kadurupotiya found that the students in the village are not much interested in studies. They would rather help the parents in their farms. He was thinking of starting some novel ways of getting the students interested in studies. He then contacted Mr Nandasiri Wanninayaka, the founder of Horizon Lanka Foundation and asked if the Foundation could be of any help. Mr Wickramasingha’s idea was to get some English books from the Foundation. But Mr Wanninayaka thought otherwise. He was of the view that a computer will be more exciting than books.

After lengthy discussions on how the PC would be used in the village, Horizon Lanka Foundation donated a used Pentium II computer to Kadurupitiya. This is how Kadurupitiya got the first PC to the village. It was the first time that the students and the villagers saw a computer. This made the students come back to school for studies.

Having heard of this miracle – a used PC changing a big difference in this little hamlet – LearnAid in Kuwait donated 2 more used PCs. Later they donated a brand new PC as well.

Information and Communication Agency of Sri Lanka heard this success story through Mr Wanninayaka and they chipped in by providing more PCs.

Since the computer project started to expand, it was shifted to an independent place in the village. Already built small room has been temporarily donated by the government to run the project. Project was named as Ashoka Mala Computer Center. This is said to be the area which legendary Prince Saliya and his sweetheart Ashoka Mala have spent their life in olden days.

By October 18, 2006 ICTA provided internet access as well to the project.

Now we are running a very small informal IT educational program. Our computer instructors are Mr. Ranjith Karunarathna and Miss Nadeeshani Tharangika. We have problems in learning English. We need more help in English. We have an idea to establish common library in the village.

We were lucky to get internet access through CDMA technology recently. When we started our computer center, we never expected things to change this fast. Now we have internet, email and we can communicate with the world easily. We thank ICTA, Sri Lanka for providing us this facility.

Kadurupitiya is a small and a very rural village, under the purview of the Mahavilachchiya divisional secretariat within the Anuradhapura district. Our village has three small reservoirs. Majority of people are farmers and they do chena (slash and burn) farming and rice farming. Most of the villagers do not know the value of education so it is very difficult to convince them. But with the advent of Ashoka Mala Computer Center , things have started to change and now villagers are keen to educate the children.

February 11, 2006, no doubt, will remain in the memories of the children of Kadurupitiya School, Kudathammenawa for a long period. It is the day on which all the children of the school received a brand new pair of shoes each.

The donation was made possible through the generosity of the President of LearnAid. After seeing some of the photographs of the schoolchildren taken during the donation of computers in August 2005, he offered to give shoes to the children from his private funds. On behalf of the donor, Gamini handed over the shoes to the children when he visited the school on February 11.

LearnAid has given the necessary funds to Kadurupitiya School, Kudathammenawa so that the Computer Lab of the school can have a regular electricity supply. Preliminary work has been completed and the children will soon have this essential facility.

When the regular electricity service becomes available to the Computer Lab, ICT Agency plans to provide connectivity. This will be a highly valuable resource to the school as well as to the community.