The Safe Bottle Lamp Foundation

The Founder

Dr. Godakumbura qualified as a doctor in 1964. His interest in the health of the people developed when he was still a medical student. In 1963, he started contributing articles to newspapers and doing radio programs. Later, in 1971, he wrote a book in Sinhala entitled 'A Doctor Speaks', for which he received a literary award. Three Deans of the Colombo University highly commended it, and it was recommended as a library book for schools.

He went to UK in 1971 and qualified as a surgeon. After returning, he worked in several hospitals and he was appalled by the extreme misery that unsafe kerosene lamps were causing to people who did not have the 'luxury' of electricity in their homes. That prompted him to launch the 'Safe Bottle Lamp Project' in 1992, now known internationally too following the wide publicity it got in the international media after winning the prestigious Rolex Award for Enterprise in 1998. Magazines like TIME, Newsweek, Science and Nature, National Geographic and Reader's Digest are among the many magazines that featured his project. In addition, CNN and BBC TV telecast documentaries on it and VoA broadcast a live interview with him. When he got the Rolex prize money he immediately formed the 'Safe Bottle Lamp Foundation', after working single-handedly for six years.

Dr. Godakumbura won the Rolex Award in the 'Science and Medicine' category. He also won a Reader’'s Digest Award called 'Hero for Today' in 2000 and three years later a grant for his project from the Lindbergh Foundation. This Foundation appointed him to its Grants Technical Review Committee. He also won three Sri Lankan Awards, viz, Presidential, Vidyajyothi and Sarvodaya, and the magazine 'esteem' named him as one of the 'Icons of Sri Lanka in the 20th century'.

Recognizing his passion and committment for injury prevention, the Ministry of Health appointed him to the National Committee on Prevention of Injuries in 1995 and the International Society for Burn Injuries (ISBI) to its Prevention Committee in 2001. His work did not fail to get the attention of the WHO too. In 2007, the WHO invited him to two consultation meetings held in Geneva and Manila to prepare two books on 'Burns' and 'Child Injuries'. He has made presentations in 11 International Medical Congresses. The journal of the ISBI 'BURNS' carries a 17 page article on 'BURNS AND FIRES' written jointly by Dr. Godakumbura and four other authors from USA, South Africa and India.

Realizing that there is no book yet on injuries in Sri Lanka even though they account for a third of all hospital admissions in every country, he is now writing a book in Sinhala on 'Prevention of Child Injuries'. It is awaiting publication.

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