Badulla Nenasala Branch

Nenasala 

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.

 Success stories from the Nenasalas in Sri Lanka

 

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.

 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.