Fusion Education Awards Ceremony 2012 celebrates success of rural students in ICT

The Fusion Education Awards Ceremony (FEAC) was held on 18 May 2012 at Maharagama Youth Centre successfully for the third consecutive year. About 1,200 students together with parents from 18 districts of the country including the north and east took part in celebrating their hard work and success.

Sriyan De Silva Wijeyaratne, Country Manager of Microsoft Sri Lanka, graced the occasion with the founder of the Sarvodaya movement Dr. A.T. Ariyaratne and many other Government officials, public administration practitioners and business leaders. Special prizes and medals were given to the best students.

Sarvodaya-Fusion is a leading ICT4D (non-profit) social enterprise in Sri Lanka, with a mission of ‘e-empowerment of rural communities’ – a specialised program of Sarvodaya, the 52-year-old national charity. Sarvodaya Fusion focuses on ICT education as one of its main themes. It designs and implements ICT education products targeting marginalised youth groups in rural areas of the country. Diploma in Computer Application (DICA) is one of the products which was introduced by Fusion Education with the support of a resource pool from University of Moratuwa.

The course curriculum is based on the guidelines of Tertiary and Vocational Education Commission (TVEC) of Sri Lanka. The Fusion Education network of Telecenres includes Nenasala (ICTA), Sarvodaya, Gamidiriya and local private operators. Sarvodaya-Fusion accelerates telecentre economic sustainability by introducing new business models and increasing entrepreneurial capacity of the operators.

The award ceremony created a platform to bring key players of the ICT sector together. Moreover the occasion was a great opportunity for invited participants to share information, experiences, on their programmes and to explore potential collaboration.