Mr Nimal Thissera had given money for Digital Butterflies project to buy 5 PCs some time back. Initially 5 students were selected from 5 eVillages. Out of the 5 two most hard working stundets were given money to buy the PCs. When other 3 students show significant achivement in their academic activities, the project disburse their money as well.

Two Lucky PC recipients are,

1.    Damahana

Name :- L. J. Peellawaththa.
Blog:- http://jayanath.wordpress.com
Email:- lasanthajp@yahoo.com

2.    Nihiluwa

Name –  Crishan Chathuranga de silva
Email ID  krishan@ruhunulanka.org
WebPage http://www.ruhunulanka.org/krishan.html
Blog  – http://krishanme.wordpress.com

As promised, Mr Nimal Tissera a Sri Lankan living in Canada donated 25,000 LKR to help matching grants fund to buy second hand PCs to 5 students from 5 remote villages in Sri Lanka recently. The purchasing will be done soon. There are more students waiting in the waiting list and you can contribute by donating 5000 LKR to enable a student in a rural village to buy a second hand PC.

We have thought of making Digital Butterflies Program an island wide for the students and youth island wide to be benefited from the project. Our aim is to provide a PC for each home in remote areas. We need the project to be registered as a legal entity. We expect a generous law firm and accounting firm will assist us to do that. Iresha Dilhani, the first recipient of the first PC will head the program. She needs your support to make it island wide. Contact info@horizonlanka.org

Most of the computers bought under Digital Butterflies project are going old now. We are finding it difficult to find parts for old Pentium I, II and III PCs. It would be great if you could send your used PCs, hard disks, monitors, RAM, etc. to us. If you have such items please contact us through mahavilachchiya@gmail.com. We will come and collect the stuff.

Two generous donors (Sri Lankan expatriates) in USA and Canada have promised to sponsor for 25 used PCs for the village students in the following 5 village projects. 5 computers will go to the first 5 students who join Digital Butterflies Network from each of the following villages. We hope there will be more people to join this project of providing used PCs to village students. Please contact us if you have used PCs or parts. Contact info@horizonlanka.org for more details. Once the donation of 25 PCs takes place we will add more info about the event.

1. Damahana eVillage, Balangoda, Rathnapura – Website http://www.oasisdamahana.org/ Blog  http://oasisdamahana.wordpress.com/
2. Rewestern Lanka eVillage, Mahalakotuwa, Matale – Website http://www.rewesternlanka.org/ Blog http://rewesternlanka.wordpress.com/
3. Ruhunu Lanka eVillage, Nihiluwa, Beliatta, Hambantota – Website http://www.ruhunulanka.org/ Blog http://nihiluwa.wordpress.com/
4. TechnoVillage eVillage, Pitakumbura, Bibile, Monaragala – Website http://www.technovillage.org/ Blog http://technovillage.wordpress.com/
5. Wayamba Lanka eVillage, Nikawewa, Kurunegala – Website http://www.wayambalanka.org/ Blog http://wayambalanka.wordpress.com/

The digital butterflies project is 6 years old now. We have brought more than 40 PCs to our village through this project. These computers have had a great deal of use.

Consequently, some of these machines are now not functioning properly so we can no longer use them in our homes. Also, some computers do not have CD ROMs, hard disks, floppy drivers, speakers, keyboards, computer mice and other computer peripherals.

If we can replace them we can continue expanding our computer knowledge. We cannot afford the cost for repairs at the moment. Therefore, we would be very grateful if anyone could donate either used PCs to ease the current crisis. Contact info@horizonlanka.org or call 077-7702678.

So far more than 40 PCs are there in the village under “Digital Butterflies” project making Mahavilachchiya a village with high computer density in Sri Lanka. Following is a list of PC owners in the village. Horizon Lanka Foundation has been able to link 28 of these PCs and two government schools to Internet through mesh technology.

1. Iresha Dilhani
2. Radhika Nilupulee
3. Majith Rakshitha
4. Isuru Senavirathna
5. Prasanna Dhammika
6. Prabodha Lasanthi
7. Dinesh Pradeep
8. Aruni Pradeepika
9. Duleeka Dilhani
10. Ranuka Udayanga
11. Nuwan Sampath
12. Tharanga Sampath
13. Nadeeka Sajeewani
14. Ruwan Laksiri
15. Udeshika Madushani
16. Chanaka Nalin
17. Malin Priyadarshana
18. Tharaka Eranjan
19. Kavinda Dhaneshwara
20. Jeewan Sampath
21. Lalitha Kumari
22. Anusha Priyadarshani
23. Lahiru Prabhath
24. Chandima Priyadarshani
25. Anushka Udeshani
26. Nilanka Subhashini
27. Chamila Priyadarshani
28. E. K. P. Krishantha
29. Gayani Senevirathna
30. Rajitha Dilshan
31. Nuwan Kalhara
32. Ajith Kumara
33. Nuwan Madushanka
34. Hansi Sumedha
35. Kasun Harshapiyalal
36. Sunil Premarathna
37. H. R. Gihan Bandara
38. Anusha Ekanayaka
39. Sriyanika Subhashini
40. Gayani Sandamali
41. Dhananjaya Wijewikrama
42. Damith Priyankara
43. Thilina Sampath

Horizon Lanka Foundation was started with a single PC given by Sanjeewa Wickramanayake of eWIS through Mr and Mrs Gaminitillakes. Earlier the PC was kept at Mr Nandasiri Wanninayaka‘s house and we learnt computers from there. But later we received few more used PCs from Slimline (MAS Holdings) and HopperTravels and there was no room to keep those PCs. Then Mr Wanninayaka asked the students to keep PCs at their houses till the computer lab was built. Later, it was found out that by keeping PCs at students’ houses became very productive as students’ computer knowledge was improved very fast. But we had to return the PCs to the main lab once the computer lab was completed.

Still Mr Wanninayaka wanted to keep PCs at our homes too. The solution was to provide a computer for each family. The project came into shape with that idea. The Digital Butterflies project encourages the students to save money in order to purchase a computer and when the savings reach 5,000 LKR (50 USD) the student can join the waiting list of the Digital Butterflies.

In Sri Lanka a used Pentium 1 or 2 could be bought for around 10,000 LKR (100 USD) those days. When we receive inquiries from prospective donors, the project directs them to the waiting list and they are able to donate the rest of the money to buy the PC. The project is a subproject of Horizon Lanka Foundation but acts as a separate entity

Iresha Dilhani was lucky to get the first PC from this project on 4th of  November, 2001. By now there are around 50 PCs in the village. You can help another student to get a PC by donating 5,000 LKR. Contact info@horizonlanka.org for it. Or call 077-7702678.