History

Mr Wickramasingha Hettiarachchi, the Head Master of the small public school at Kadurupotiya found that the students in the village are not much interested in studies. They would rather help the parents in their farms. He was thinking of starting some novel ways of getting the students interested in studies. He then contacted Mr Nandasiri Wanninayaka, the founder of Horizon Lanka Foundation and asked if the Foundation could be of any help. Mr Wickramasingha’s idea was to get some English books from the Foundation. But Mr Wanninayaka thought otherwise. He was of the view that a computer will be more exciting than books.

After lengthy discussions on how the PC would be used in the village, Horizon Lanka Foundation donated a used Pentium II computer to Kadurupitiya. This is how Kadurupitiya got the first PC to the village. It was the first time that the students and the villagers saw a computer. This made the students come back to school for studies.

Having heard of this miracle – a used PC changing a big difference in this little hamlet – LearnAid in Kuwait donated 2 more used PCs. Later they donated a brand new PC as well.

Information and Communication Agency of Sri Lanka heard this success story through Mr Wanninayaka and they chipped in by providing more PCs.

Since the computer project started to expand, it was shifted to an independent place in the village. Already built small room has been temporarily donated by the government to run the project. Project was named as Ashoka Mala Computer Center. This is said to be the area which legendary Prince Saliya and his sweetheart Ashoka Mala have spent their life in olden days.

By October 18, 2006 ICTA provided internet access as well to the project.