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Ketawala
now has its own IT centre
Not long ago young Ruwini, from the little known village of
Ketawala in Mawathagama won the admiration of all when she
confidently delivered a welcome address in fluent English
to an audience which included His Excellency the President
Hon. Mahinda Rajapaksa. The occasion was the e-Society Awards
Ceremony of the ICT Agency held at the Presidential Secretariat.
Ruwini clearly epitomized the capabilities of our rural youth.
The ICT Agency recognizing the potential these young children
in Ketawala have, moved to give them the basic infrastructure
that would pave the way for a better education and improved
livelihood. On the 15th of May, 2008 Ketawala, got its own
IT Centre. The project was the outcome of a collaborative
venture between LearnAid of Kuwait, the ICT Agency and the
Kshasthriya Rajaputhra Weerasinghe Foundation (KRWF) a well
known philanthropic organization in Mawathagama. Dr. Gamini
Premadasa, Executive Director of LearnAid, who was in Sri
Lanka especially for the event, declared the building open.
The 20 perch block of land on which the building is located
has been donated to the project by the Chief Incumbent of
the Ketawala Gonagaladeniya temple. LearnAid provided the
funds for constructing the building through the generosity
of its Kuwaiti sponsors, Mr. Tariq Al-Jassim of Cargo Transport
Systems Co. and Mr. Musaad Y. Al-Hamad of Raith Engineering
and Mfg. Co. of Kuwait. The ICT Agency which, through its
Nenasala Project has already developed a network of rural
ICT Centres supplied the hardware and educational software.
Internet connectivity to the Centre is also being provided
by the ICTA under the Nenasala Project. The KRWF, who will
manage the centre, provided the staff, furniture and other
resources. The construction of the building was coordinated
by Mr. Karunaratne Mapagedera on behalf of the Weerasinghe
Foundation.
The centre comprises a computer training unit, a lecture hall,
and a Nenasala. It will cater to children of both Sinhala
and Tamil communities in the area – the children of Ketawala
Vidyalaya, Muwankanda Saraswathi Hindu Vidyalaya, and Gonagaladeniya
Primary School. It is expected that the enhanced interaction
between the Tamil and Sinhalese ethnic groups living in the
locality through this common resource will be an added benefit
that will arise from the venture. Although largely targeted
at school children and young school leavers it is expected
that the centre would serve the needs of the adult population
as well.
This project is a prime example of a collaboration between
diverse religions and ethnicities and worthy of emulation:
the building itself has been funded by donors of Islamic faith
through the intervention of Mr. Victor Ramanan, a Tamil Christian
living in the UK while it is built on land donated by the
local Buddhist temple and serves both the Sinhala and Tamil
communities in the village.
LearnAid is a multinational, not-for-profit organization based
in Kuwait. All its activities are geared towards promoting
education, with the learning of computing skills and English
language being its primary focus. Over the past few years
LearnAid has helped children in many villages in Sri Lanka
and two schools in Pakistan and the Philippines aswell.
The ICT Agency is the apex body for ICT policy and direction
for the nation; it is also the implementing body of the e-Sri
Lanka initiative, a project under the World Bank.
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