- TFOS global ambassadors and international chapter affiliate
Sri Lanka
Asela Abeydeera
Asela Abeydeera is a Community Ophthalmologist associated with the Ministry of Health of Sri Lanka with nearly 20 years of experience in Ophthalmology. He obtained his medical degree from the University of Ruhuna in Sri Lanka in 1997, and post-graduate degree in Community Eye Health in 2006. As the National Coordinator for the 2020 Global Vision Programme for ten years, Dr. Abeydeera represented Vision 2020 Sri Lanka, the National Programme for the Prevention of Avoidable Blindness, and is involved in many other activities to improve eye care services in Sri Lanka. He is dedicated to establishing a wide network of eye care addressing the public needs in all age groups around the country collaborating with health care, social welfare, and education systems, as well as linking arms with several international and national donor organizations. Over a five-year period, he sought to strengthen the country-wide school vision screening programme, enabling over 300,000 school children to have free custom-made pairs of spectacles. This programme has been custom designed to train teachers to properly vision screen children, and Dr. Abeydeera volunteered to visit each district in the country to provide this training. He also exclusively conducted a cataract surgical programme reaching corners of the country with little or no eye care services, which enabled over 50,000 people who were blind by cataracts to regain sight. Dr. Abeydeera was a principal author and coordinator of the National Blindness Survey in Sri Lanka in 2014-2015, and he has become a team-leader of survey execution travelling around the country with survey teams facilitating the ground work and publication of their findings. Additionally, he has published many other papers related to eye health, and was recently assigned research consultant, investigating the employability of visually impaired people in Sri Lanka. In 2015, he launched an initiative called “Sight for Life,” aiming at building a mobile eye hospital to perform cataract surgeries in the rural areas. In order to to fulfill the financial requirements of this eye hospital, he organized a fundraiser, which included a 330 kilometer “walk across the country,” which he completed himself and was able to raise the required funds to build the mobile unit. Dr. Abeydeera also founded the Association of Community Ophthalmologists of Sri Lanka (SLACO) in 2015, became its first President, and through SLACO he is able to continue his mission of providing free eye care services to less fortunate parts of the community. In 2011, he was awarded the position of Country Chair of the International Agency for Prevention of Blindness in Sri Lanka (three-year term) and was selected again in 2016. In 2014, he was awarded Global Eye Health Leader by the International Agency for Prevention of Blindness at its Annual General Meeting in Paris, and has received many honors and awards locally for volunteer services rendered to the public. During Dr. Abeydeera’s free time, he conducts free eye clinics in a few fixed locations in his hometown.