History
After the visit by Mr. Lalith Weeratunga, the Secretary to the President in November 2006 and the subsequent visit by Mr Ariyaratne Hewage, the Secretary to the Ministry of Education and Mr Anura Dissanayake, the Project Director of Secondary Education Modernization Project (SEMP) in February 2007 it was decided to start 5 eVillages in 5 provinces following the example of successful eVillage Project in Mahavilachchiya. (See www.mahavilachchiya.net.) Mahavilachchiya eVillage is the first of its kind. Starting with 10 students and 20 parents the way back in 1998, it has developed into a position where it could start its own Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) company - OnTime Technologies Pvt. Ltd. http://ontimetechnologies.wordpress.com – the first rural BPO in Sri Lanka. Having started BPO work with just three employees, – all youths from Horizon Lanka, Mahavilachchiya – now it is geared to increase the number of employees up to 8 by August and up to 25 by December. Reputed companies like John Keells Holdings, Dialog Telekom and Singer Sri Lanka are working with us by outsourcing their work to us. (Please read the attached article written by one of the directors of OnTime BPO – a former student of Horizon Lanka – which appeared in i4d international magazine. This shows how the BPO is becoming a sustainable project in Mahavilachchiya.)
In Horizon Lanka Foundation’s www.horizonlanka.org journey to this level it had to pass many a barrier starting from lack of connectivity to absence of self sustainability. The former problem was solved by getting RLL (Radio in Local Loop) internet access in 2004 and ICTA chipped in 2005 by extending their help to pay the internet bills and doubling the bandwidth. Internet access was made available to 28 households and 2 public schools in November 2006 by introducing mesh internet technology for the first time in Sri Lanka in Mahavilachchiya. See http://www.apdip.net/news/lk-evillage.
To address the other problem of gaining self sustainability, Mahavilachchiya has a sound plan to become self sustainable by 2010. Listed below are the intended ways to become self sustainable.
- Increasing the number of students of Horizon Lanka and increase income
- Starting 10 more satellite Horizon Lanka’ franchised centers within the district and get a royalty from those centers to Horizon Lanka, Mahavilachchiya
- Getting income through an eco-tourism project including Tantirimale, Mahavilachchiya and Anuradhapura ruins
- Income from OnTime Technologies Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) Company.
- Getting a reasonable percentage or a fixed amount of monthly salaries of those who get jobs in Colombo or elsewhere through Horizon Lanka links.
- Converting the Computer Center to a cybercafé / communication center and increasing income
- Setting up internet kiosks at each mesh internet connected houses and getting an agreed percentage of the income to Horizon.
- Replicate the tested drip irrigation system in other farmers’ houses through donor agencies and getting a reasonable percentage of the income from farmers.
- Starting a digital photography and videoing center using Horizon equipment and getting income.
- Expanding English and computer courses to the elders, army, police, professionals, etc. and getting an income.
