Two ICTA Nenasalas win Global Entrepreneurship Awards

Source: ICT Agency of Sri Lanka         Country: Sri Lanka
Created By: Nuzreth on 28-Nov-2007 2:17 AM

Two Nenasala telecenters, overseen by the Information and Communication Technology Agency of Sri Lanka (ICTA), the apex body for ICT policy in Sri Lanka, have won Young Social Entrepreneur awards from the Global Knowledge Partnership (GKP).

Selected from among 864 applicants around the world, the Thalpotha Nenasala, Polonnaruwa, and the Lunama Nenasala, Hambantota, have been recognised for their contribution to improving the ICT literacy of Sri Lanka’s rural populace. Mahesh Dissanayake who runs the Nenasala in Thalpotha works to popularise the use of Sinhala in IT at grassroot levels.

He has been exposed to the use of IT for development internationally, in Japan and India and has used those lessons to develop a plan to get rural communities to develop and upload digital articles and media that is of value to others like themselves in their daily lives.

“The support and assistance we received from ICTA from the time when we were a small community organisation is really the foundation of our current success,” he said. W.M.C.R.K. Dissanayake who runs the NenaSala in Lunama, is a social entrepreneur of significant ability. His ability to mobilise the community around his centre for social and IT projects is well known.

He also maintains a bilingual website, www.hambantota.info, which contains maps and other information about the Hambantota district.
ICTA has given 398 other communities such Nenasala telecenters where ICTA gives equipment and connectivity to the community and the community has to meet the cost of rent, electricity and salaries. This cost sharing model has created significant innovation at the ground level.

ICTA salutes the award winners who serve to highlight the great success they and their Nenasalas have had in taking the benefits of technology to every citizen.

Web Site: http://www.icta.lk

Contact Name: Nuzreth

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