Around 84 percent of the population in Sri Lanka have expressed willingness to donate their eyes, according to the Ministry of Health.
The Ministry said the National Eye Bank, established 15 years ago, has so far received around 17,000 corneas, which have been used in approximately 12,000 corneal transplant surgeries.
It further noted that between 4,000 and 5,000 corneas have been provided to other countries based on international demand and requests.
The Health Ministry highlighted that the National Eye Bank is an internationally recognised institution, with continued demand for corneas from several countries, including Singapore and South Africa, as well as other Asian nations.
The disclosure reinforces Sri Lanka’s long-standing position as one of the world’s leading per-capita donors of corneal tissue, a tradition rooted in the Sri Lanka Eye Donation Society founded in 1961, which pioneered the international export of donor corneas decades before transplantation became a routine procedure.
The 84% willingness figure is among the highest reported by any national survey on tissue donation globally, and the Ministry framed it as a strong base on which to expand the donor pledge programme.
Civil-society partners continue to support the supply chain: the Rotary Club of Colombo Centennial handed over 100 intraocular lenses to the Sri Lanka Eye Donation Society earlier this week under its “Gift of Sight” project, complementing the publicly funded surgical pipeline.
