Gemidiriya's Manthan award - a tribute to rural communities
Gemidiriya secured the Manthan Award South Asia - 2008 for "the best
e-content for development" in the e-enterprise and livelihood domain.
The ITShed commercial web portal of Gemidiriya has been recognised as
the best e-solution in South Asia that links the rural communities with
markets.
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The technical consultant of the ITShed web portal Ven.
Pattiyawela Mahinda Thera and Gemidiriya Project Director Dr.
Gamini Batuwitage with the Award. |
ITShed is helping communities by bridging the information gap that
isolates the rural poor in Sri Lanka. The demand for ICT training is
currently greater than the supply, and there is a great potential for
expanding the IT shed and the content provided through it, the
appreciation letter signed by the chairman of the World Summit Award
Peter A. Bruck and the chairman of the Manthan Award Osama Manzar said.
The Gemidiriya ITShed is all about ICT and digital content
intervention with a bottom up approach. Uniquely, the community uploads
information about their products and services and its availability where
other peer groups access information for their demand to available
supplies.
Gemidiriya works closely with village youth and provides skills
training in computer and other ICT tools. Gemidiriya has already set up
over 160 IT and communication centres providing total ICT services for
villages.
Gemidiriya CEO, Dr. Gamini Batuwitage said that the Manthan Award is
a tribute to rural communities in 1,036 Gemediriya villages for their
commitment in developing their villages.
The Gemidiriya project was implemented to help in achieving the
Mahinda Chintana policies which clearly recognised the regional
imbalance in economic growth and income distribution and to address the
reasons for the rural economy to lag behind. In Gemidiriya we launched a
novel approach giving decision-making power to the communities. We
always use IT as a tool at village level of the project and therefore
the usage of IT applications and e-litaracy in Gemidiriya villages is
higher, Dr. Batuwitage said.
The award ceremony was held in New Delhi recently and 264 nominations
were presented for the competition. Sri Lanka presented 18 projects for
the competition while India presented 225 projects. |
