A field trip to Mahavilachchiya

Ananda Hendrick ananda@horizonlanka.org Manager, Horizon Lanka Foundation

The team of students, parents and officials of Nihiluwa Maha Vidyalaya arrived at the Horizon Lanka Foundation at about 4.00 pm on 11th of May 2007 and the team consisted with a Provincial Director of Education, Mr. Amal Thushara, a lady teacher, some male and female students. After their arrival, they immediately ran to our computer laboratory and this insinuated great anxiousness of the students about the computer technology. Very imprudently, a programme had been made by us to give those students a maximum advantage during their times in order to their visit becomes fruitful entirely. In view of their moods, it is observed that they were very happy and it was a very good opportunity for them to see the Horizon Lanka Foundation, the first e-village in Sri Lanka. Subsequently, the team was fetched to the Mahavilachchiya Reservoir and the students were happy about their seeing of such a large reservoir. Almost all the visitors had a long bath from the reservoir and the necessary guidance was made to protect them from the dangers might have been occurred due to their meager experience in having bath in the reservoir before.

After finishing their bath, they were taken to the mesh internet enabled houses of some of our senior students who have the internet connection and thereat, they showed the web sites that they had designed themselves and those sites were sufficient to grab the minds of all those visitors as those designing were only dreams for them. At that time itself, some of those students had a chance to make little voice chats with the Founder of Horizon Lanka Foundation, Mr. T. B. N. Wanninayake and through Yahoo! Internet Messenger. Mr Wanninayaka explained them the value of using internet in rural villages such as Mahavilachchiya. To the students’ surprise, Mr Wanninayaka was talking to them from distant Colombo but the voice was clearer than a telephone line.

After seeing the availabilities such as computers with internet facilities, books etc. in Horizon Lanka Foundation, almost all the girls changed their ideas of staying in our students houses of which the arrangements had by then been made to enable them to have a lesson at Horizon Lanka Foundation without just wasting even a single minute of their time at Mahavilachchiya. On account this sudden change of their idea of staying at Horizon Lanka Foundation itself, some of our male students happened to make additional arrangements to provide them the necessities for sleeping. But, without considering their tiredness, our students did what was necessary for the visitors and this caused to make close proximity of both students and the adults. For execution of great ambition of the visiting students, Mr. Buddhika Prasad Hettiarachchi, one of the directors of Horizon Lanka Foundation taught them a lesson and while the teaching was going on, no any sleepy mood emanated from the visiting students and it further implied a great temptation of the students in studying computer technology.

In the following morning, the visiting students also participated in our morning assembly and till about 1.30pm. The senior students of Horizon Lanka Foundation taught them how to design a web site and how to make Gmail account and various types of other lessons. In view of the interest appeared from the faces of those visitors, it apparently revealed that those students were undergoing a mental inconvenience since they don’t have an opportunity to study most valuable things in connection with the computer technology which they have failed to arrive at so-far. Therefore, it seems that it is a responsibility of the Government to make an immediate arrangement to disperse the internet facilities throughout the rural areas also to enable the students in rural areas also to get fulfilled their ambitions of computer technology as well as the students in urban areas.