he Virtual Village Project organized a computer day on 29th and 30th of March 2007 at Mayfield Tamil Vidyalaya, a village location in the project. The school has 400 students from tea plantation community. The school is located in a mountaneous area sourrended with tea estates in Hatton which is 160 Km from the country capital Colombo.

The computer day started off with a ceremonial opening by the school Principal Mr Madunaraj.

The Virtual Village project technical officer Mr Melro Mendis demonstrated the uses of computer accessories. The school is connected to internet via CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access) link with a speed of 64k. The school children were shown on how to download picutures for their school subjects.

The field staff Vanasri and Niroshan assisted in carrying out the event. K. Anbalagan, K. Wickneshwaran, K. Sivabalan, Miss R. Devika and A K Robert  who are students of the computer classes in the Virtual Village telehut got a chance to use their computer skills as they assisted in demonstrating Children's CDs to the students.

A special dialog on the Last mile connectivity, relating to the experiences at the E Asia conference, was done by Priyanthi and Melro on 15 th March 2007 at Telecentre Family office at Kotte.

The discussion was very interesting to all the participants especially the village community dynamics to the new developments in connectivity technology.

A brief report of the sesssion will be updated by Isura in this site. 

The virtual village project had a session and stall during the eAsia conference in Malaysia during 6^th to 8^th February 2007. The two hour session was held on 7^th February 2007. The event was held in Putrajaya International Convention Centre. The conference organizers were CSDMS, India.  

Background                                   

Telecentres around the globe is playing a key role in providing access to knowledge to marginalized communities there by engaging in bridging the digital divide. The introduction of technology to grass roots shows diverse reactions from the community. The virtual village project session discussed issues on adaptability of technology in different geographical locations and behavioral and attitudinal changes occurred among diverse groups (religious leaders, farmers, adults, school children, youth) in two selected villages in Sri Lanka after the ICT4D project intervention. 

The session had an eminent audience which included Dr Narayan, President of CSDMS, UNDP India and Dr. Roger Harris, Roger Harris Associates and Bellanet.

Sarvodaya and DNet of Bangladesh have joined hands for a collaborative research for virtual village project. The MOU was signed on August 28th during the telecente family workshop in Rangpur, Bangladesh.

The recent heavy rains has blocked most roads leading to Meewala village as Athanagalu Oya, (village rivulet) is flooded with rain water. Children and youth enjoying in the water, floating around in tire tubes was a common sight. The villagers use makeshift rafts and a different connection road to get to the main road. It is fortunate that non of the houses are affected in the village.