TMG Chandrasekara, the announcer. Wanni, we have few minutes left. Aruna, do you have anything to add? Are there any other graduates in the village or are you the only one?

Aruna: There are few others.

TMG: You have got a traditional university education and come back to the village to start from the scratches again with Horizon. But the future generation in the village will not have the same problems you had since they are getting the basics right from the village itself now.

Aruna: Certainly, that is what my aim too. I am of the view that we should go for the modern knowledge without being limited to traditional system.

TMG: Many of us have to come to the village to find knowledge. A person  like you can have access to Information Technology only after coming to university. But now, since Wanni and others have started this project in the village…. How far the youth who studied at Horizon have gone by now?

Wanni: Few have got job opportunities. People who visit our website offer job opportunities to the youth. Two students were selected to university recently and we are helping them further. My main goal is to send at least one child from Mahavilachchiya to MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) in USA and give a good education there within next 5 years and bring him/her back to the village. It is not something impossible. Coming back to the unemployment problem, there is no scarcity of jobs. If you read a weekend newspaper you can see how many vacancies are available. The problem is that we haven’t matched our knowledge to these jobs for some unfortunate reasons. I don’t think that Mahavilachchiya children will ever have this problem in future.  At the recently held presentation in Colombo some private banks came to us and said they will provide jobs once the children grow up since the children already have the necessary knowledge.

TMG:  After watching today’s program, I think that if you were in a backward mindset, you will come forward. You saw the talents of the children in Mahavilachchiya village which is surrounded by Vilpattu National Park. You also can get this as an example and go forward. Wanni, thank you and others very much for coming to Rupavahini and showing us your children’s talents.

TMG Chandrasekara, the announcer:  We have little time left now. Aruna, tell me what are your future plans. We have to make this (ICT) culture in the village. You have got to get the parents’ and the village’s involvement here, not only the children.

Aruna: We have a future plan but the problem is we don’t have a regular fund for that. If we have regular funding for at least two years it would be helpful for us to develop our ICT project further.

TMG: Wanni, you have a program to provide a PC for everyone in the village. Please briefly explain me about that.

Wanni: We have an ICT Plan and our first priority is to complete the computer lab and then comes getting necessary equipments for the lab. Computer training comes next. As part of our ICT plan we have planned to get a PC for each child in the village. We call the program “Digital Butterflies.”  Each child is supposed to save 5000 LKR in his or her bank account. They can save 100 LKR per month since Horizon is not charging any money from the students. They can save more during parents’ harvesting season. Then we match the grant with another 5000 LKR from a donor (from Colombo or abroad.) We had originally planned to buy the first PC under this program in two years but I am happy to say that within the first six months since we planned the project, 12 PCs have come to children’s houses. Another 10 students have saved 5000 LKR and are in the waiting list now to get the matching grant from a donor.

TMG: This means each child in the villagewill get a PC …. You have electricity in the village, haven’t you?

Wanni: Yes, we do.

TMG:  If you had telephone facilities you could have gone further …

Wanni: Yes, we can perform “magic” if we have a telephone line. That is the only thing we expect from the government.

T M G Chandrasekara, the announcer: Now Aruna, a graduate produced by Mahavilachchiya village joins us now. Aruna, you are an end result of the traditional education system. Where do you stand today?

Aruna Wanninayaka: Yes TMG, after coming back from the university with a university degree I understood that there is some sort of mismatch between the degree (I obtained) and the job market. My experiences there are not that pleasant. Then I understood  – my brother (Wanni) is very creative – that creativity is vital to survive. So I joined him. At Horizon, I help the young students not to fall in the trouble I fell in (in traditional education system.)

TMG: After your university education, you had to go back to the village and had to start from Horizon again…? That is where what is necessary happens.

Aruna: I think that is what should happen. Modern knowledge is what is necessary. That can be done only through Information Technology as I think.

TMG: Champika, if you can log on to the Internet can you show us something similar (to Horizon) anywhere in the world.  Today we have a problem due to the virus problem we cannot use Internet….

Champika:  Yes TMG, I will show you some URLs in the screen. You can see www.canadaindiavillageaid.com  in the bottom. An Indian village started this project and the Canadian government supports this project now.

TMG: Wanni, there are similar projects in countries like India but they are not as difficult as your village when it comes to basic facilities.

Wanni: Yes TMG, I have been to such websites but what I have seen is that most of such projects have been started with a grant given by someone, maybe 50,000-60,000 USD. But a project like ours which started under a tree with some wooden benches going this far within such a short time is rare to my knowledge.

T M G Chandrasekara: OK, we spoke of the challenges …

Wanni: The next biggest challenge is the running costs of the institution. At the start it was not costly – we studied in the usual fashion, under trees. But now we need to generate a huge amount of about Rupees 40,000 to 50,000 monthly – to pay telephone bills, Internet charges, transport costs to Anuradhapura and many other problems. In the past, we got a lot of help from Sri Lankans. But now with the Iraq war, there is a delay in receiving funds.

TMG: How did you get these funds?

Wanni: In many cases, it is from Sri Lankans living abroad. Those living in Sri Lanka as well as foreigners have helped us.

TMG: Now, do you earn something from web designing?

Wanni: Yes, we have done that. We earn money ourselves. What we do mostly is to get together with the children and design websites for private institutions. The money we get goes to a common fund and it this that we spend now.

T M G Chandrasekara: Now, when you were on this journey, with the support of parents of course, what were the challenges you faced?

Wanni: Yes, here I like to show as a Powerpoint presentation, – this is the work our students themselves. It is a PowerPoint programme done beautifully, with the single colour. It shows the challenges faced by Horizon School and how they were overcome. These children are smiling now, but they did not have smiles all the time. We faced problems that we could not imagine. Even in the village itself, the traditional leadership may not be that happy when someone young gets together with children and does something new. Or, this might be a problem to someone who does not profit directly from Horizon School. Sometimes this could produce obstacles. At the same time, there are many who fear new technology and the use of tools and instruments connected to new technology. So, we faced problems in these situations, but we mostly …

TMG: Yes, there is someone calling about these same obstacles. May I know who wants to speak?

Caller: This is a computing skills teacher who is speaking. At present computers are being distributed throughout our country. But what have you got from the government, Education Ministry so far?

TMG: What he wants to know is whether you have had any sponsorship from the government. One point is that Horizon School is not a government school, isn’t it, Wanni?

Wanni: No, we have no affiliation whatsoever to the government. This is something that we ourselves started under trees. We have not received anything up to now, I am sorry to say that we have received nothing from the government. We hope to continue in the future as well. It is a lot if there is at least a drop in the obstacles created even if we do not get any help.

T M G Chandrasekara : Yes. There is another telephone call. Go ahead.

Caller: This speaker is a teacher who taught Mr. Wanninayaka.

TMG: May I know your name, please?

Caller: L. Somadasa, from Avissawella. I am one of Mr. Wanninayaka’s teachers.

TMG: So, how do you feel happy about Wanni today?

Caller: I am extremely happy: because we knew when this child was studying, that he would go a lot further. I know that this child will progress more. Mahavilachchiya really is one of the most under-privileged schools. These children studied in the midst of all those difficulties. The service that this child is giving is highly valuable. Mahavilachchiya didn’t have even an electricity supply those days. It’s only recently that an electricity supply has come. And, if they are given telephone facilities, these children can do a lot more work.

TMG: Good. Thank you, Mr. Somadasa. Your word is a great incentive to Wanni and his team, isn’t it Wanni? You would remember, won’t you?

Wanni: Certainly, yes. If we didn’t have Mr. Somadasa and others of that generation of teachers that we had when we were in school, we might not be here today. We are very thankful that Mr. Somadasa spoke.

TMG: Wanni, how did you learn English?

Wanni: In the village itself. Not in tuition classes or anywhere else, but in the village, initially. At that time we had one Mr. Gunawardne as our English teacher. It was the same period when Mr. Somadasa was there. He is the one who introduced us to double-ruled books and showed us how to write English characters – we were in Grades 7 and 8, not knowing a word of English. Mr. Gunawardne had the ability to teach us quite speedily. Mr. Gunawardne can be happy if he is watching this programme – I sent a few letters, but I couldn’t find the whereabouts of Mr. Gunawardne. In fact, it is the same methods that   Mr. Gunawardne used with me that I use even today to teach my students.

Wanni: Certainly. At the same time, there is a newspaper that we started recently, to present information about villages. It is called Hamlet Pamphlet or Gamdora Viththi. If you know of an individual or group that has special talents or development news regarding villages, you can forward that information to us. You can either use ordinary mail or send as email messages. We are ready to give publicity to useful and correct information free of charge.

from www.youtube.com

TMG Chandrasekara, the interviewer:  Radhika, after that…? Let’s also visit Radhika’s webpage. I saw a beautiful webpage done by Radhika.

Radhika: Yes, I did this page about two months back. At the start we didn’t know how to make a webpage. We learnt this about one year back. Now, when we make web pages, we take the pictures and we write the story. So, if you take our website, many of the web pages have our own work.

TMG: After you uploaded the pages to the Internet, have you met any new friends?

Radhika: Yes, I have many friends like that. We had one programme where we searched for others with the same names. Let’s say, “I am Radhika.” Now, there are many others with the same name Radhika.

TMG: In other parts of the world, say, India?

Radhika: Yes, then we searched for others who had the name Radhika. Like that we searched all other names. With this, we found many other Radhikas.

TMG: You found others who had the name Radhika?

Radhika: Yes, then we emailed them. They are in touch with us even now.

TMG: Wanni, can’t we have a look at one of the message the children got in the past? Let’s see what they say.

from www.youtube.com

TMG Chandrasekara, the Interviewer:

Radhika, In which grade are you studying, Radhika?

Radhika: I am studying in Grade 10.

TMG: OK, Grade 10. What do you remember of the start? I think you are one of the first members of the group, aren’t you?

Radhika: Yes. I joined Horizon when I was in Year 4. We were the first students of this school. I have now spent five years here.  

 TMG: You all were first under a tree…?

Radhika: Yes, under trees. We didn’t have any desks or chairs. So, we sat on the ground under the trees and did our studies. 

Wanni: I like to add that we had an increase of students recently and with that there was a problem of desks and benches. We didn’t have money either. Then one of the parents said, “We have a good tree in our garden. I’ll give it.” Some other parents cut the tree. Then a few parents who were good in carpentry made desks and chairs out of this wood. So, if we have cooperation like this, we can do a lot even if we don’t have lakhs of dollars.

TMG Chandrasekara : What type of things do you do you to involve the children and to increase their contribution?

Wanni
At this point, I really want to say that more than half the credit for this whole project should go to the parents. I could never have done something like this on my own. When we started, we had no one from outside to help us — because nobody knew about us. From the very first day until now, until today, I get the maximum support from the parents. Whether it is the computer room or any other job, they give their labour without receiving any payment. We have a Parents’ Association, and we find easy to do everything through it.

TMG
I saw that you have a page for the parents.

Wanni
Yes, what you see now is the page about the parents. There is something special that you can go to from here. This is Wijesinghe — Hasintha’s father. Unfortunately he lost one of his legs when he was small. It was not his fault — but a gun meant for wild animals that fired accidentally when he was looking for his cattle. Though he lost a leg, he rides a motorcycle; he has a very successful vegetable plot. He does not expect handouts from anybody, but works real hard to earn a living. We added this story to the Internet, and a gentleman from Austria donated him an artificial leg.