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ShareCatalysing the Sri Lankan telecentre movement: Knowledge sharing mission of nenasala operators to MSSRF, India
Location: Chennai, India
Created By: vignesh on 20-Feb-2008 11:10 PM
A smile lifts her mouth and her eyes brighten up as she talks of her Nenasala.
Deepika Gurusinghe Arachchige, operator of the Sooriya Wewa Nenasala, Sri Lanka, is one of the best twenty nenasala operators of Sri Lanka chosen for the 'Study Tour of Nenasala Operators to M S Swaminathan Foundation's Village Resource Centres (VRCs) / Village Knowledge Centres (VKCs) on Knowledge and Experience Sharing Mission'. The tour was organised between 4th and 11th February, 2008. It is worth mentioning here that she is the only woman in the team. She was chosen because of her understanding of the local community's problems and for providing solutions.
The Nenasala Project is one of the projects implemented under the e-Sri Lanka Initiative. Formally known as the 'Vishva Gnana Kendra Project', Information Communication Technology Agency (ICTA) has incorporated it under the 'Nenasala' label to introduce several models of telecentres or knowledge centres to be established in all parts of Sri Lanka to spread ICT services to the rural and semi-urban population. To know more, please visit www.nanasala.lk and www.icta.lk.
Deepika hails from a lower-middle class family and is married to a business man. She is also the mother of two young girls. On 15th May 2005, she started her nenasala with an initial investment of LKR 2,50,000. She worked for a Korean company called Hanjung to save this money. Her nenasala, located in Sooriya Wewa, caters to 15,000 people living in 22 different villages. People visit the nenasala to avail of the following services: Internet browsing, computer training, type setting, telephone calls, photocopying, printing and faxing. She earns on an average LKR 50,000. She feels very comfortable and satisfied with the current occupation rather than her previous job.
Prabha Sethuraman, Executive Assistant/Communication Officer, International Development Research Centre (IDRC SARO) and I asked her about her key understanding and lessons learnt from this tour. We interviewed 9 men and all of them gave almost the same response and we were amazed at her response. She said that on her return to Sri Lanka she will collect and compile the local data and maintain a register in her nenasala. She will engage more women in the nenasala and will explore how ICTs can be used for agriculture, fisheries and industry in her local condition. She wanted to have mobile health facility for her villages. After this trip, she will use her two-wheeler and laptop to create awareness among the local community. She expressed her deep gratitude to ICTA and telecentre.org for providing such an wonderful opportunity.
Rev. M. Devasagayam, serving at the St. Mary's Church, Bogawantala, Sri Lanka is also operating a nenasala in his locality. It caters to a population of 4,000 to 5,000 mostly working in 10 large tea estates. Bogawantala nenasala is located in the Central Province of Sri Lanka. It offers the following services: computer training, Internet browsing, providing information etc., The nenasala is generating a revenue of around LKR 4000 to 5000, which is not much considering the fact that 1 kg. of rice costs INR 90; egg costs LKR 12; coconut costs LKR 30 – 35; and milk powder costs 725/kg.
The tour helped him to realise the importance of providing different employment generating opportunities to the local community and basic and reliable information on weather forecast for the fishermen. Equally important are the milk cooperative society initiative in Sri Lanka, agriculture related information and knowledge exchange among knowledge workers.
According to him, the main differences between nenasalas and VRCs/VKCs are:
1. Nenasalas don't provide information on animal husbandry;
2. VRCs/VKCs have the advantage of latest technology,
3. Nenasala programme follows top-down approach, whereas, VRCs/VKCs follow bottom-up
approach.
4. Nenasala is not people centric, it is technology centric; and
5. Women empowerment is playing a central role in VRCs/VKCs.
Mobile health services excited him much and he wants to take this initiative to Sri Lanka with immediate effect. He requested telecentre.org and ICTA to organise more such study tours to exchange knowledge and experience.
Another interesting story came from M. N. M. Rinoos, an engineering student in his mid 20s. He started his centre in 2005 at Jaya Nagar. He was chosen for this study tour on the basis of his successful computer awareness campaign and implementation of e-Learning system in 8 different schools. His centre caters to 40 villages and attracts 20 – 25 visitors per day. They visit the centre mainly to avail of the following services: Internet browsing, computer training, job search, photo copying and scanning. He earns a profit of LKR 7000 – 8000. Two of his students, Akram and Manasi got jobs in a Malaysian company and their families are well settled now.
During the study tour, he learned to connect the grassroots people with the government and market the local products. He wants to use the Azim Premji's Educational CDs to educate the local people. He w is thankful to ICTA and telecentre.org for this valuable and insightful study tour.
In total, Prabha and I interviewed 10 delegates of whom 7 are Sri Lankan nenasala operators and 3 are government officials . Each operator had and an interesting story to share. Let us see them below.
Rev. Kudaligma Sohat is a Buddhist monk and operates Kalluthura nenasala. His centre caters to a population of 1500 and attracts more than 150 school children and 20 Buddhist monks per day. In addition to regular services, the centre also provides training for monks. The centre is facing acute connectivity problem.
C Mohammad Najeeb operates Al Matharashas Samathaniya nenasala. He runs his centre in the war torn zone of Eastern province. Tamils and Muslims constitute the majority in the region. The centre caters to 4 villages and covers more than 10, 000 population. It attracts around 20 – 25 visitors per day. Women participation is very less. He was excited to know about the touch screen facility at the Rajiv Gandhi veterinary college, Pondicherry.
Rev. T Nandasiri started his centre in 2005 at Kirthi Sri Raja Maha Vihara. It caters to 15 villages and covers 5,000 population. Interestingly, it attracts more than 150 visits on worship days and 10 -15 visits on other days. Till date, he has trained more than 48 students on computers, of whom 25 got jobs in private companies. Since the centre is located within the monastery, women hardly visit them. So, he decided to shift the centre outside the monastery. He believes that this trip will have a definite impact on the working of his nenasala. He congratulated both ICTA and telecentre.org.
T G Nilaveera is a teacher by profession and operates a nenasala with the help two youngsters. He started it in July 2005. Most of the revenue comes from computer education and Internet browsing. Since he hails from a coastal region, he wants to replicate the fishery information system in his region.
Deepika Gurusinghe Arachchige, operator of the Sooriya Wewa Nenasala, Sri Lanka, is one of the best twenty nenasala operators of Sri Lanka chosen for the 'Study Tour of Nenasala Operators to M S Swaminathan Foundation's Village Resource Centres (VRCs) / Village Knowledge Centres (VKCs) on Knowledge and Experience Sharing Mission'. The tour was organised between 4th and 11th February, 2008. It is worth mentioning here that she is the only woman in the team. She was chosen because of her understanding of the local community's problems and for providing solutions.
The Nenasala Project is one of the projects implemented under the e-Sri Lanka Initiative. Formally known as the 'Vishva Gnana Kendra Project', Information Communication Technology Agency (ICTA) has incorporated it under the 'Nenasala' label to introduce several models of telecentres or knowledge centres to be established in all parts of Sri Lanka to spread ICT services to the rural and semi-urban population. To know more, please visit www.nanasala.lk and www.icta.lk.
Deepika hails from a lower-middle class family and is married to a business man. She is also the mother of two young girls. On 15th May 2005, she started her nenasala with an initial investment of LKR 2,50,000. She worked for a Korean company called Hanjung to save this money. Her nenasala, located in Sooriya Wewa, caters to 15,000 people living in 22 different villages. People visit the nenasala to avail of the following services: Internet browsing, computer training, type setting, telephone calls, photocopying, printing and faxing. She earns on an average LKR 50,000. She feels very comfortable and satisfied with the current occupation rather than her previous job.
Prabha Sethuraman, Executive Assistant/Communication Officer, International Development Research Centre (IDRC SARO) and I asked her about her key understanding and lessons learnt from this tour. We interviewed 9 men and all of them gave almost the same response and we were amazed at her response. She said that on her return to Sri Lanka she will collect and compile the local data and maintain a register in her nenasala. She will engage more women in the nenasala and will explore how ICTs can be used for agriculture, fisheries and industry in her local condition. She wanted to have mobile health facility for her villages. After this trip, she will use her two-wheeler and laptop to create awareness among the local community. She expressed her deep gratitude to ICTA and telecentre.org for providing such an wonderful opportunity.
Rev. M. Devasagayam, serving at the St. Mary's Church, Bogawantala, Sri Lanka is also operating a nenasala in his locality. It caters to a population of 4,000 to 5,000 mostly working in 10 large tea estates. Bogawantala nenasala is located in the Central Province of Sri Lanka. It offers the following services: computer training, Internet browsing, providing information etc., The nenasala is generating a revenue of around LKR 4000 to 5000, which is not much considering the fact that 1 kg. of rice costs INR 90; egg costs LKR 12; coconut costs LKR 30 – 35; and milk powder costs 725/kg.
The tour helped him to realise the importance of providing different employment generating opportunities to the local community and basic and reliable information on weather forecast for the fishermen. Equally important are the milk cooperative society initiative in Sri Lanka, agriculture related information and knowledge exchange among knowledge workers.
According to him, the main differences between nenasalas and VRCs/VKCs are:
1. Nenasalas don't provide information on animal husbandry;
2. VRCs/VKCs have the advantage of latest technology,
3. Nenasala programme follows top-down approach, whereas, VRCs/VKCs follow bottom-up
approach.
4. Nenasala is not people centric, it is technology centric; and
5. Women empowerment is playing a central role in VRCs/VKCs.
Mobile health services excited him much and he wants to take this initiative to Sri Lanka with immediate effect. He requested telecentre.org and ICTA to organise more such study tours to exchange knowledge and experience.
Another interesting story came from M. N. M. Rinoos, an engineering student in his mid 20s. He started his centre in 2005 at Jaya Nagar. He was chosen for this study tour on the basis of his successful computer awareness campaign and implementation of e-Learning system in 8 different schools. His centre caters to 40 villages and attracts 20 – 25 visitors per day. They visit the centre mainly to avail of the following services: Internet browsing, computer training, job search, photo copying and scanning. He earns a profit of LKR 7000 – 8000. Two of his students, Akram and Manasi got jobs in a Malaysian company and their families are well settled now.
During the study tour, he learned to connect the grassroots people with the government and market the local products. He wants to use the Azim Premji's Educational CDs to educate the local people. He w is thankful to ICTA and telecentre.org for this valuable and insightful study tour.
In total, Prabha and I interviewed 10 delegates of whom 7 are Sri Lankan nenasala operators and 3 are government officials . Each operator had and an interesting story to share. Let us see them below.
Rev. Kudaligma Sohat is a Buddhist monk and operates Kalluthura nenasala. His centre caters to a population of 1500 and attracts more than 150 school children and 20 Buddhist monks per day. In addition to regular services, the centre also provides training for monks. The centre is facing acute connectivity problem.
C Mohammad Najeeb operates Al Matharashas Samathaniya nenasala. He runs his centre in the war torn zone of Eastern province. Tamils and Muslims constitute the majority in the region. The centre caters to 4 villages and covers more than 10, 000 population. It attracts around 20 – 25 visitors per day. Women participation is very less. He was excited to know about the touch screen facility at the Rajiv Gandhi veterinary college, Pondicherry.
Rev. T Nandasiri started his centre in 2005 at Kirthi Sri Raja Maha Vihara. It caters to 15 villages and covers 5,000 population. Interestingly, it attracts more than 150 visits on worship days and 10 -15 visits on other days. Till date, he has trained more than 48 students on computers, of whom 25 got jobs in private companies. Since the centre is located within the monastery, women hardly visit them. So, he decided to shift the centre outside the monastery. He believes that this trip will have a definite impact on the working of his nenasala. He congratulated both ICTA and telecentre.org.
T G Nilaveera is a teacher by profession and operates a nenasala with the help two youngsters. He started it in July 2005. Most of the revenue comes from computer education and Internet browsing. Since he hails from a coastal region, he wants to replicate the fishery information system in his region.
After interviewing the nenasala operators, Prabha and I had an informal discussion. We realsied the importance of such a knowledge sharing study tour. We were excited to hear different success stories and key challenges from the grassroots workers. We wanted to get the perspectives of government officials and continued our interview with M V Sarath de Silva, Consultant, Filed Operations, ICTA; Jegath Seneviratne, Programme Head, Monitoring and Evaluation; and Harsha Vijayawardanae, Assistant Secretary, President Secretariat, Sri Lanka. You may read the interviews in my next blog.
Contact Name: Vignesh
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