By H M Senevirathna, Mahavilachchiya (Justice of Peace, All Island)
With the foreign invention in 1505 we lost our independence. After 500 long years president Mahinda Rajapaksha could regain our independence through his humanitarian operations. Today, we celebrate that grate victory. The first anniversary of our newly gained independence. This war memorial; we have reached and present today is symbolic of that independence. Lord Buddha at the moment of his passing away addressed God Sakra and preached that pure Dharma would survive for long in an island called Sri Lanka. Lord Buddha also requested the God to protect king Vijaya, the ruler of Sri Lanka and all successors so God Sakra protected all the grate leaders of his country by trying the blessed thread (pirith noola) around their hands. Going through that president, we have surrounded our war memorial with the blessed thread. The two ends of the thread are tied to the president heart and the thread is entangled seven times in his hand. And then it covers the lotus the symbol of Mahinda Chinthana and finally touches the land. The war memorial symbolises how the three forces, under the guidance of the Defence Secretary, Gotabhaya Rajapaksha rescued Mavilaru. It also illustrates the astonishing victory on May 18th of 2009. The pearls indicate the unity and prosperity of Sri Lanka, the pearl of Indian Ocean. The ‘sal’ flowers show the Lord Buddha’s blessings to Sri Lanka. This memorial is dedicated to all those who worked hard to bring independence to our motherland.
By 2009, Dialog Telekom had erected a high-capacity tower in Kiralpetiyawa, an underprivileged area which was considered ’the Siberia of Mahavilachchiya’, due to lack of basic facilities in the hamlet. Horizon Lanka thought its ideal that the mesh internet coverage could be extended to Kiralpetiyawa, but it had not been included in the original budget planning. This was explained to Dialog Telekom and Horizon Lanka requested Sri Lanka’s flagship telecom service provider to consider providing their tower facility to install mesh internet equipment free of charge as a CSR initiative. Usual monthly fees charged by telecommunication firms to share tower facilities are prohibitive for an organisation like Horizon Lanka. The much anticipated positive answer came readily from Dialog to use their tower. LankaCom, the mesh implementing company fixed mesh equipment in the Dialog tower few days back. Now the entire Kiralpetiyawa area enjoys mesh internet signals and a 500+ meter
Wi-Fi network exists around the Dialog tower. Signals from Dialog tower are strong enough to reach even distant Pemaduwa, the ‘downtown’ of Mahavilachchiya.
Dialog Telekom has been helping Horizon Lanka since 2002. First they provided low cost phone packages to Horizon Lanka staff and parents and then provided mobile access to a 50 meter radius exclusively around Horizon Lanka computer lab at a time Mahavilachchiya was not covered by Dialog. In 2006, Dialog donated IT equipment and paid salaries to one of our staff members for a year.
Dialog was the first mobile company to cover Mahavilachchiya. In 2009, Dialog even expanded its coverage to entire Mahavilachchiya by providing coverage via its newly built tower in Kiralpetiyawa.
Horizon Lanka wishes to thank Dialog for its continued support over the years. We wish the company every success in its future endeavors.
The implementation of new mesh network in Mahavilachchiya is being done now. ISIF is the funding agency and the implementation is done by LankaCom this time.
There are 4 Wi-Fi zones now in the village and two more zones will be added. The strength of signals are stronger this time than the previous implementation due to the technological advancements during the past 2-3 years.
18 houses have been connected to the mesh by now and more houses will be connected in coming weeks.
Unlike last time, the whole village will be covered with the mesh internet network this time.
The annual housemeet was held in Thakshila Maha Vidyalaya on February 3, 2009. The provincial educational authorities, government officials, the principals of schools in Mahavilachchiya DS Division, police and Civil Security Forces officers and other dignitaries in the area attended the event. The house Perakum became the first while Gemunu became the runner-up and Wijaya the third. The principal and the staff of the school had worked hard with the students and the parents to make the event a success. (Photo credits: Saman Wijitha Kumara)
A bana pinkama (a Buddhist religious sermon) was held in Sri Sudarshanaramaya, Mahavilachchiya January 31st night. An invited monk from an aranya (monastery) in Ritigala did the sermon. The Chief Monk of the temple, Maraka Suseela Thero was also present. The Divisional Secretary, Mr Sugath Kithsiri also was present at the event. A large number of devotees listened to the sermon. (Photo credits: Saman Wijitha Kumara)
Mr. Sugath Kithsiri, the Divisional Secretary of Mahavilachchiya and Mr. Kapila Abenayaka the O. I. C. of Mahavilachchiya Police Station
A group of patriotic Sri Lankans in Sydney, Australia donated 50 Flashlight Torches to Mahavilachchiya and Tantirimale to help enhance security of these villages. The distribution was done with the participation of Mr. Sugath Kithsiri, the Divisional Secretary of Mahavilachchiya, Mr. Kapila Abenayaka the O. I. C. of Mahavilachchiya Police Station, Lieutenant Colonel M. U. Munasinghe an army officer of North Central Province. They handed over the torches to the personnel of Civil Security Force. Mr. Sugath Kithsiri coordinated the donation.
Minister of Mineral Oil Resources Development Duminda Dissanayake assured the residents of Tantirimale, who have been engaged in a continuing public protest over the poor state of the 26 kilometer stretch of road from Vannihelambewa junction Anuradhapura to Bogoda, Tantirimale being in a state of disrepair, that the government would take immediate steps to start its rehabilitation.
The Maha Sangha too had joined the protest on Saturday (26).
The road from Vannihelambewa Junction, Anuradhapura has been in a badly neglected state from 1994 and the public in the villages of the area launched a protest by placing logs across the road and planting banana trees in the middle of the road where the tar had been washed off.
Traffic on the road came to a halt for over thirty hours with the protestors blocking the road and the Maha Sangha including the Chief Incumbent of Tantirimale Raja Maha Viharaya Ven. Tantrirmale Chandaratana Nayake Thera joining the protest. The Minister, who met the protestors, pledged before the Maha Sangha that the rehabilitation of the road would commence from May 15.
The major irrigation reservoir, the Maha Villachchiya Mahavewa, is in the danger of destruction as its dam was damaged during the recent rains that fell on the North Central Province. About 5,000 farmer families, who depend solely on the waters of this major reservoir, with a capacity of 23,000 acre feet of water, to irrigate their rice and other crops will be affected if the dam is not repaired immediately farmers told The Island.
About 3,000 acres of paddy are cultivated by the farmers of the Maha Villachchiya area with irrigation from the reservoir. When the reservoir was first rehabilitated, 888 farmer families were settled in the lands below it but today after four generations the number of families had increased to 5,000,
At present about 500 metres of the bund of the reservoir has been damaged by erosion and the threat of the bund being breached badly was pointed out in the press several times before, but the irrigation authorities have not taken steps to repair it.
However, when the local authorities were contacted for a comment they said there was no immediate danger of the dam breaching right now. But the water level of the reservoir had reached spill level with the recent rains. The senior farmers and settlers expressed fears of the worst to come if the dam is not repaired now.
Tantirimale is situated in Mahavilachchiya Divisional Secretariat Division. Read this article about Tantirimale in Sinhala Wikipedia. This article was compiled by Sunil Premarathna, a former student of Horizon Lanka, now a final year student at University of Colombo. Sunil Premarathna is also doing his thesis on Mahavilachchiya reservoir and its irrigation system these days.
The late Minister of Highways & Road Development Mr Jeyaraj Fernandopulle visited Horizon Lanka, Mahavilachchiya in October, 2006. He was greatly impressed about Horizon Lanka’s mission on developing the village with the use of ICT and asked how best he could help Horizon Lanka. The staff, students and the parents requested him to repair the roads in and around Mahavilachchiya as it is the most needed requirement for the village. He immediately instructed local authorities to repair the road up to Horizon Lanka. He was in the process of repairing other roads in Mahavilachchiya, including repairing the road from Nochchiyagama via Suriyadamana to Mahavilachchiya since this could make easy access for Mahavilachchiya’s agricultural products to Nochchiyagama and Thambutthegama markets. Mr Fernandopulle was also willing to extend the carpeted road from Anuradhapura to Oyamaduwa up to Mahavilachchiya. We are not sure if the project would go forward with his untimely demise.
This story was originally written and uploaded to Horizon Lanka website on Octiber 09, 2006.
Road to Mahavilachchiya is in very good condition only upto Oyamaduwa Junction. But beyond that the work has not been done well. Recently Minister of Highways Hon. Jeyaraj Fernandopulle and the Deputy Minister Hon. W. B. Ekanayake visited Mahavilachchiya to see the road conditions. They also visited Horizon Lanka Foundation. We hope that the roads in Mahavilachchiya will be repaired soon as it would encourage investors to start ICT related ventures in Mahavilachchiya.
"The mission of Horizon Lanka Foundation is empowering the rural community through enhanced ICT awareness while preserving its hallowed traditions and cultural values, by utilising the unique infrastructural resources available at Mahavilachchiya optimally, constituting a pioneer level testing ground and launching pad for innovative technologies, widening avenues of employment for the rural youth through expansion of Business Process Outsourcing opportunities and facilitating mastery of English language, and serving as a model to be emulated by emerging eVillages in Sri Lanka."
VOLUNTEER AT HORIZON LANKA, MAHAVILACHCHIYA, SRI LANKA
We welcome foreign volunteers to Horizon Lanka. Those who prefer to volunteer at Horizon Lanka Academy, Mahavilachchiya can contact Global Vision International's volunteer scheme to Horizon Lanka. If you can teach English, computers, management, etc., you can contact us and GVI for that. You can read some of the tour reports by our former volunteers in this page. Visit http://www.horizonlanka.org/volunteer/index.htm for more details
This is how the lime harvest in Mahavilachchiya is being wasted as the prices are too low for a farmer to take them to a market.
Some of the roads in Mahavilachchiya are being renovated these days. The road from Tract 4 Junction to Tract 3 is being repaired these days.
The annual housemeet was held in Thakshila Maha Vidyalaya on February 3, 2009. The provincial educational authorities, government officials, the principals of schools in Mahavilachchiya DS Division, police and Civil Security Forces officers and other dignitaries in the area attended the event. The house Perakum became the first while Gemunu became the runner-up and Wijaya the third. The principal and the staff of the school had worked hard with the students and the parents to make the event a success. (Photo credits: Saman Wijitha Kumara)
Mahavilachchiya - e-Village in the Jungle 