An article I read recently in Focus, the magazine of Australian Doctor, instantly captured my imagination. It described how a surgeon working in a rural area in Sri Lanka came up with one simple, brilliant idea to help prevent terrible burn injuries and deaths from the use of home made kerosene lamps.

It also described the difficulties Dr Wijaya Godakumburra has had raising funds for the Safe Bottle Lamp Foundation, which included the Sri Lankan government saying at the time that their first priority was disease prevention and not injury prevention.

Burn injuries from kerosene lamps are common in many countries in Asia and Africa. Of the two billion people in the world with no access to electricity, most use kerosene for lighting. In Sri Lanka alone, six million people use kerosene lamps. Many use unsafe home made lamps, which, being tall and narrow, tend to topple easily. Without screw-on lids, the flammable kerosene then spills causing fires and horrific burn injuries.

A former head of the main burns unit in Sri Lanka worked out the figure for the cost of treating bottle lamp victims as Aus$1.5 million a year, an enormous amount of money in Sri Lankan terms.

“It was in 1992, while working in a hospital 100 kilometres from Colombo that I thought that it is time that something is done to prevent kerosene bottle lamp burn injuries - a common household accident among the poor in our country,” Dr Godakumburra said.

Less than half the population in this district had electricity in their homes. All of them used kerosene for lighting, with many using cheap home made, unsafe lamps. Accidental kerosene burn injuries were common, particularly among women and children.

Dr Godakumburra came up with the idea for the ‘Sudeepa’ (su = good, deepa = lamp), a squat, heavy lamp that does not topple easily. It has two flat sides, so that it does not roll if it does topple and also has a screw-on metal lid, to prevent the oil spilling. The simple design uses recycled glass and can be mass produced at low cost ($0.50c).

The safe bottle lamp project only really got off the ground in 1998 however, when Dr Godakumburra’s idea was recognised by the Rolex Awards for Enterprise. The US$50,000 prize money was the boost he needed to expand the foundation.

Not only does the foundation replace unsafe lamps with safe ones, it also gives valuable safety advice to people, for example, that kerosene is more flammable than they imagine; not to let small children handle lamps, whether safe or not; not to pour kerosene into lit lamps, which is a common practice; the correct way to extinguish flames if a fire occurs; and to pour cold water over burns for 20 minutes after extinguishing the flames, as the heat retained in burnt skin causes further harm to the deeper tissues.

This prevention and safety advice cuts down the number of burns as well as the severity of burns when they do occur, Dr Godakumburra says. Already, 550,000 unsafe lamps have been replaced with the ‘Sudeepa’ safe lamps.

Whilst in recent years, the Safe Bottle Lamp Foundation has received many accolades from organisation and people as diverse as the president of Sri Lanka Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga, author Arthur C Clark (one of the first donors), Readers Digest and the WHO, fundraising remains an ongoing struggle.

Because the safety lamps cost seven times that of the home made unsafe ones, and people do not realise that the lamps they use could maim and kill, funding is constantly needed to subsidise them. It is a hard slog constantly promoting, fundraising, letter writing, lobbying, organising a proper distribution network, and selling the benefits of the lamp.

“My difficulties in fundraising are enormous. When I write 50 letters, only two or three reply. Some sponsor musical shows and sports events but do not assist us. In January, some publish full page newspaper advertisements to wish us ‘A Happy New Year!’ But they wouldn’t think of helping us.”

When asked what keeps him going despite these difficulties, Dr Godakumburra talks about his awareness of the misery unsafe lamps cause and the knowledge that his efforts are benefiting people. He mentions the faith placed in him and the foundation by those who have helped, mainly Rolex, which gave its prize money without even asking for a statement of accounts. He also enjoys the opportunity to communicate with people in Sri Lanka and abroad, and happily rises to the challenge of showing those who try to place obstacles in his path that “they are barking up the wrong tree”.

Lastly and with disarming frankness, Dr Godakumburra admits that “being human”, now and then he likes the acclaim.

Clearly a driven, focused man, a major early influence was the realisation when he became a medical student that much of the suffering caused by both disease and injury was preventable.

Until he completed his school exams in 1958, he was a very “ordinary kid” he remembers, minding his own business.

Later, after spending time in the hospital wards and noticing the suffering of the patients, he developed an interest in health education as a means of prevention, whereas almost all his colleagues were concerned only with treatment. Even before qualifying as a doctor, he started writing to newspapers and magazines on health topics and giving radio talks. In 1970, he published a book on common illnesses and injuries, and advising people how to avoid them.

Establishing the Safe Bottle Lamp Foundation was a natural progression for someone with a concern for the common good, an unshakeable belief in the importance of prevention, and an inspired idea.

“I live in hope that I would get a break here and there, to protect more and more people from the dreadful bottle lamp. One came my way [recently]. UNHCR* sent a purchase order for 16,000 lamps.

“I believe in the adage ‘Difficult things are easy. Impossible things could be done with some difficulty.’ I cannot remember where I read it. I often tell that to my medical students.”

For more information about the Safe Bottle Lamp Foundation, visit http://www.safebottlelamp.org.

* United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees