The founders of iTEE Foundation are part of the diaspora community that came to the United States to escape the Sri Lankan civil war. Through hard work, the freedom and opportunity afforded us here, we each have achieved some level of success and prosperity, living out the American Dream—the dream that is not just about creating wealth, but also about enjoying the rights to Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.

Our goal is to provide some measure of the American Dream to the underprivileged youth of Sri Lanka, affording them the opportunities to work hard and, through education, the means to achieve economic independence.

We firmly believe that education has been a primary enabler of our own successes, so it naturally follows that we want to make quality education more accessible to the underprivileged Sri Lankan youth. Through education and opportunities for entrepreneurship, we want to help these young adults become economically independent, productive contributors to their communities, whether within or outside the Sri Lankan state.

We are each committed to expanding education opportunities for underprivileged communities around the globe, and in particular, the underprivileged in our own homeland of Sri Lanka.

The foundation owes its gratitude to Jey Kumara Surier, who seeded the idea, brought together professionals in Silicon Valley and volunteered 13 months of his time on the ground to initiate the first ever technical institute in the North.

Jey’s goal was to close the digital divide and make the disadvantaged communities in Sri Lanka catch up to the rest of the world. In fact, his vision was to establish a “Stanford University” in Sri Lanka that will one day duplicate the creation of a Silicon Valley in Sri Lanka.