Nenasala
Success
stories from the Nenasalas in Sri Lanka
A Nenasala
The
ICT literacy which was around five per cent at the time the Nenasala
project was launched has now reached the 30 percent mark.
“Thanks
to these Nenasala centres, people in distant rural villages are now in
communication with the whole world. Now we are in an era in which the
world is equipped with a deep knowledge about computer technology. We
should think more of the future and our children. Where would we be in
ten years’ time. We should create for the future generation an
environment where technology could be used for good governance and
righteous social life,” the President said.
Referring
to the youth in the North and the East who had been long denied the
march towards knowledge and for whom now the path of knowledge is wide
open, the President said: “We have now redeemed the country from
terrorism. Some elements wanted to divide the country. They prevented
children from having access to knowledge.
They
gave the youth T56 instead of knowledge. We want to put things right.
We want to give the youth what had been denied to them. We want to give
them knowledge. We cannot let the forward march of the country to be
reversed. There is no way we can permit democracy to be replaced by
dictatorship. Now that the Nenasalas are available islandwide people in
the rural villages can now access the internet and know about persons
like Hitler and Pol Pot. We should move from the era of terror to an era
of peace. On a note of warning about the traps that are around to take
hold of the innocent the President said: “We must guard ourselves
against getting entrapped into a reversal of good things we have
achieved.
Now
that the division of the country by war has failed, some are trying to
take the country back to the period of strife and disunity by other
means and agreements.
Our
hope is to make the future generation equipped with the knowledge and
skills that are necessary for them to be on a par with their
counterparts in the most advanced countries of the world while
preserving the pristine cultural and spiritual values of the Motherland.
May
you have a brighter future”, the President concluded offering his
greetings to the audience consisting mainly of the 600 odd Nenasala
centre owners and operators. Science and Technology Minister Prof Tissa
Vitharana said the Nenasalas established islandwide has contributed much
to bridge the gap between the city and the village.
This has been further supported by the Vidatha centres.
The
Minister also referred to nanotechnology and disclosed that steps were
being taken to set up a nanotechnology centre in Sri Lanka.
Urging
the audience to be industrious like countries that have made great
strides in technology the Minister said, “Countries like the US, Japan
and Germany are far ahead of many countries in the world. However
countries like South Korea, Singapore, and Malaysia which were
economically of a level on par with Sri Lanka have improved to a higher
level by proper use of technology.
Functions
like this convention will encourage the owners and operators of
Nenasalas to continue the good work they are doing in the village
towards taking the dividends of ICT to every citizen”.
The Minister also commended ICTA for the contribution it was offering for making the benefits of ICT accrue to the people.
The Nenasala initiative which is based on a concept of His
Excellency the President Mahinda Rajapaksa, to provide ICT access
to rural areas is implemented by the Information communication
technology Agency of Sri Lanka (ICTA) under the e-Sri Lanka
initiative and is currently progressing successfully.
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| president at our nenasala |
Main objective of the Nenasala Network is to Empower the rural
communities all across Sri-Lanka with affordable access to ICT
based services. The project aims to have 1000 Nenasala centres in
operation by the year of 2010. A majority of the Nenasalas follow a
community model where the centres are established in a central
place of a village such as a religious institution, public library
or a community organization. These centres provide a range of
services including high speed internet to access national, local
and international information; e-mail; telephone; computer training
classes and other ICT related facilities. Content essential to the
rural community is available in Sinhala and Tamil language to all
users. The Nenasala will act as a resource center to the village to
disseminate knowledge and to share information through the
Internet, with the ultimate goal of reducing poverty, peace
building, economic and social development and improving the IT
literacy rate of the country.
The Nenasala project was initiated in January, 2005 with the
very first centre opened at the Kirivehera Temple in Katharagama by
H.E. President Mahinda Rajapaksa. The project spanned its way to
diversified models and has contributed towards the development of
information infrastructure in the country and has helped to bridge
the digital divide.
The Success of Nenasalas in Sri Lanka is measured here in
several ways as project benefits will appear as
1. Increase in the IT literacy rate
2. Knowledge Sharing
3. Easy and affordable access to citizen services
4. Access to e-commerce and ICT services leading to job growth
in the rural areas Empowering the target groups thru rural
development
By considering the numerous successful stories of Nenasala, it's
become clear that the definition of success depends on a number of
factors and different indicators. For some Nenasala, it means being
able to achieve international awards and recognition. For others,
it's all about the financial sustainability, social sustainability
or quality of the service provided. Many telecentre operators view
"success" as having a fulfilling, rewarding and continues service
to their community that allows them to enjoy both their personal
and professional lives.
The following are the several highlighted stories collected from
a bunch of success stories reported from around the country.
Nenasala (Wisdom Outlet) is a telecentre project by the Government of Sri Lanka. Developed under the e-Sri Lanka Initiative which is implemented by the ICT Agency of Sri Lanka. Communication centers are being built by the government in rural areas to help fight poverty, develop culture andcommerce, and sustain peace . There are currently 601 such centers in the country, and it is expected to extend this up to 1000 centers by the end of the year 2010.
