The Horizon Lanka Foundation was established in 1998 because of the determination of a young English teacher called Nandasiri Wanninayaka from the rural village of Mahavilachchiya. The village children’s thirst for knowledge led them to the door of Mr. Nandasiri Wanninayaka (now CEO of HL Foundation), their former English teacher in the public school. Thus began an after-school club providing children further education in English and computers. It has become a popular place for many children of the village. Since 1998, the Horizon Lanka Foundation has branched out. As well as providing an all round education to the village children at Horizon Lanka Academy, they have expanded into the Information Age.
Now the Foundation service the entire community with their computer lab. In 2001, the website www.horizonlanka.org was launched by the children of Horizon Lanka Academy, opening a window to the world. By 2004 the Horizon Lanka got 24/7 internet access using RLL technology, the first Sri Lankan rural village to get such a facility even before telephone coverage came to the village.
Horizon Lanka Foundation (HLF) is also responsible for beginning a project called Digital Butterflies http://digitalbutterflies.wordpress.com which is bringing PCs to the homes of the villagers of Mahavilachchiya. So far around 50 homes have been furnished with a computer and this is increasing monthly. 50 more PCs have arrived Horizon Lanka Foundation from a donor in Switzerland. There are more than 10 laptops as well provided through Horizon Lanka’s Digital Ambassadors Project. http://digitalambassadors.wordpress.com/
Horizon Lanka’s innovative ways of teaching English resulted in scores of students getting A’s and B’s for English language with better passes than their mother tongue at national level exam, the Ordinary Level
.
A group of students also were able to get into national universities and other higher educational entities.
By the early 2006 the Horizon Lanka got a two storied building facility through a Sri Lankan expatriate family and the building was well equipped with the USAID-Geneva Global joint venture.
In November 2006, Horizon Lanka Foundation was able to secure a grant from UNDP to build Sri Lanka’s first mesh internet network connecting 28 students’ houses and 2 public schools with Internet.
In 2006 December, Horizon Lanka was able to get Sri Lanka’s biggest mobile operator to cover the village with a mobile telephony network at a time some bigger towns were not given the facility.
By early 2008, some youths were able to obtain jobs in the capital in the IT field. A big demand for Mahavilachchiya youth has been created by now.
By July 2008, the Ministry of Education in Sri Lanka studied the Horizon Lanka model and started replicating the model islandwide in all 9 provinces with the professional support from Mr. Wanninayaka, the Founder of Horizon Lanka.
In the National Budget for the year 2009, 100 million LKR has been allocated to replicate Mahavilachchiya model e-villages islandwide.