The Safe Bottle Lamp Foundation

 

As a surgeon, Dr. Wijaya Godakumbura witnessed many tragic fire incidents caused by kerosene lamps. There are over 1 million households in Sri Lanka without access to electricity, so they have to rely on kerosene lamps for lighting - often improvised ones. Lampswhich are made from bottles. These tall lamps tend to tip over easily, and when this happens, the wick holder often falls out and starts a sudden, violent fire. Often the flammable kerosene gets onto a nearby person, who bursts into flames and suffers severe burns, often fatal.

In 1992, Dr. Godakumbura set about creating a new Lamp that would be both safer and inexpensive enough to be affordable by the poverty-stricken Sri Lankans who were at risk of such fires. The resulting lamp is a small, flat sphere that does not easily tip over or slip away. It is made of thick glass to prevent breakage and has a screw-on metal lid that holds the wick in place and prevents spillage.

In 1993, thanks to contributions from various sources, including science fiction author and Sri Lankan resident Arthur C. Clarke and the Canadian High Commission, the lamp was put into production.

Available for less than 25 US cents each, over half a million of these new lamps have already been sold. Dr. Godakumbura hopes to continue production of the new lamps until the use of improvised lamps in Sri Lanka is reduced to a small percentage.

The foundation

In 1998, Dr. Godakumbura received the Rolex Award for Enterprise and subsequently founded the Safe Bottle Lamp Foundation (SBLF), a non-profit organization. The foundation is managed by a board of directors and employs two full-time staff.

In addition to the Rolex Award, the Foundation and Dr. Godakumbura have received a number of other local and international awards and grants. These include a Lindbergh Foundation Grant and a BBC World Challenge Award. The project has been featured in many international publications including TIME, Newsweek, Science and Nature, National Geographic and La Figaro.

Dr. Godakumbura has represented the Foundation as a speaker or participant at many international conferences on burn and accident prevention. The Foundation and the Sudeepa lamp have been presented as a replicable solution for other developing countries where burns from unsafe lamps are widespread.

Source: Wikipedia