Updates

Safe City just crossed 10,000 patient visits since launch! We are beyond elated that Safe City, your first free clinic in Nigeria, saw its 10,000th patient in September. We remember celebrating the 500th, then the 1,000th, and now we are at 10,000 less than two years after launch. This is all thanks to the Kwanda community, who believed in this vision to bring free healthcare to Nigerian communities. Saying thank you is not enough, but please accept the immense gratitude of your friends in Oworoshoki.

In September we saw 524 patients at Safe City in Oworoshoki, Lagos, Nigeria, taking our total since opening to 10,118 people, and across both Kwanda-funded clinics we have now served 13,972 people. 293 of September's patients (56%) had never visited Safe City before, which is mind-blowing: a strong wave of new families is still finding its way to us, from Oworoshoki, Bariga, Ogudu, Mushin and Ebute Metta.

358 of our patients (68%) were women and girls (it looks like we finally got a few more men in this month!), many supporting families on an average of $7.83 (about £6.20) per person each month. That leaves a household of four on about ₦40,700 (about £25), still well below the poverty line and still without affordable alternatives. Children are a big part of Safe City, with 31% of patients aged 18 and under and 14% aged 61 and over. Among patients with a diagnosis recorded, malaria was again the illness we treated most (34%), followed by upper respiratory infections (18%) and muscle pain (16%).

All 149 patients who filled in our survey rated our service excellent, and 99% said our care significantly improved their quality of life. We spent $462 (about £365) running the clinic in September, mostly on medications and medical supplies, with the rest on clinic operations and materials.

Nothing went wrong this month. Our host church is going through some leadership changes, and we are working with the new leadership to keep the clinic running to the same standard.

We are celebrating one year of Care Circle! Our clinic in Itire-Surulere, Lagos, Nigeria, opened its doors on 25 September 2025, and since then we have had 3,854 patient visits from the Surulere community. In September alone, 372 people came through our doors for a free consultation, diagnosis and treatment. Together with Safe City, the two Kwanda-funded clinics have now served 13,972 people.

139 of September's patients had never been to Care Circle before, 37% of all visits, and we saw people from four communities: Itire, Ijesha, Ikotun and Iyanu Ipaja. 235 of our patients (63%) were women and girls, who typically manage healthcare for the whole family. We cared for every age, with 18% aged 18 and under and 22% aged 61 and over, as Care Circle's patients tend to skew older. Among patients with a diagnosis recorded, malaria was the illness we treated most (38%), followed by pain and arthritis (30%) and hypertension (27%).

The families we reach live on an average of $6.06 (about £4.80) per person each month, so a household of four gets by on about ₦31,500 (about £19), well below the global poverty line of $2.15 a day. We also heard directly from our patients: 99% of the 167 who filled in our survey said our care significantly improved their quality of life, and many asked us to keep the health checks going.

We spent $453 (about £355) running the clinic in September, mostly on medications and medical supplies, with the rest on clinic operations and materials. Our community plastic waste recycling programme kept going too, which helps fund the clinic and cuts down mosquito breeding sites around the neighbourhood. Nurses Benedeth and Sylvia delivered care throughout the month, and we are so proud of the team!

Nothing went wrong this month. As more patients come to us, we are starting to get requests for services such as antenatal care alongside primary care, and we are now reviewing how to make that happen.

Kwanda's newest clinic in Onosa, Lagos, Nigeria, is really taking shape! Since our last update the walls are finished, the plumbing pipework is in, the whole roof is on and the windows are fitted. We have set our launch day for 28 November, and we are finalising the logo and branding for TOP Community Health Centre, so the clinic will look as special as it feels.

Our bricklayers finished the block work for the walls, and the final layout of the clinic is taking shape. The donated building came with its own roof, so we only needed roof sheets for the extended space, which saved on cost. We compared roofing quotes and went with the better one, and the roofers put up a timber frame first, then new sheets to match the existing green roof. It looks amazing!

In the typical AHA way, we compared several quotes from plumbers in the community and chose the one with the best price who already knew the building, which made the work seamless. The pipes are run and ready for the 4 hand basins and 2 toilets we bought, which go into the toilets, nursing stations and consulting rooms to meet local government standards for a primary care clinic. They will be fitted once the tiling is done.

The aluminium windows, with insect nets and burglar-proofing, are in, and the aluminium doors go in next, along with a frameless glass entrance door that will carry the clinic's new name and logo.

We spent $4,190 (about £3,300) this month on wall and plastering materials, plumbing, roofing, the windows and doors, and payments for the electrical work and ceiling. Prices are still rising a bit faster than we predicted, so we are spending more time negotiating and finding the right suppliers.

We have agreed terms with the electricians and ceiling installers, and work on both starts at the end of October. We have also looked at wall tile samples, started sourcing equipment and will begin hiring soon, ready for launch day on 28 November.

This month we ran menstrual health training at Kyambusya Comprehensive School in rural Kenya and gave Wings Poa reusable sanitary pad kits to 49 girls, which takes us to 1,004 girls holding a kit. Teacher Florence told us the pads the government had supplied had run out, so the school had been buying pads for girls who could not afford them, which had been a big challenge.

The girls were excited to receive their kits. One of them told us what she had taken from the training: "Today I have known that it is important for me to stay clean and to observe menstrual hygiene, especially during my period."

The 12 LitMoms, local women who sew the kits, kept working on the parts they could finish while we waited on the delayed waterproof PUL fabric, which slowed production. It finally arrived on 23 October. We spent Ksh 38,535 (about £220) this month: Ksh 29,535 on the LitMoms' sewing, Ksh 5,000 on staff time, and Ksh 1,000 each on transport for distribution, monitoring, stationery and printing, and phone calls.

Schools have now closed for the end-of-year holidays and national exams, and will not reopen until January 2027. We are planning the next training sessions and kit distributions with each school for when they return, and in the meantime the LitMoms are finishing the remaining kits.

A quick update on our robotics camp in Haiti. So far, 61 students have completed four sessions, learning to build and programme robots.

A shorter school break and gang violence near the workshop have disrupted the camps, so we’re unlikely to reach our target of 120 students this year.

I’ve been speaking with our local partner about continuing into 2027 rather than squeezing another camp into Christmas.

The latest figures shared with us show US$5,169.68 spent from the original US$13,396.30 grant. That leaves US$8,226.62 for the remaining work, without adding more funding.

We’re waiting on a realistic timetable before agreeing the dates and costs, with room for the school calendar and conditions on the ground. I’ll keep you updated.

Renovations have finally begun at Kwanda's newest clinic in Onosa, Lagos, Nigeria! The community has also given the clinic its name: TOP Community Health Centre, or TOP clinic for short. They chose it carefully, and it stands for both the name of our community partner and the clinic's ambition to be the top destination for accessible healthcare in Onosa. We absolutely love it.

This month we inspected the donated site, which used to be a restroom, with our local engineer and mapped out the clinic with our architects. The plan has a reception and waiting area, a nursing station, a consulting room, an observation ward with its own restroom, a pharmacy and a general restroom, all sized to approved government standards. We then removed the old toilets and sinks to get the space ready for renovation.

Quotes for the first block work came in three to five times above our planned budget, because of inflation in Nigeria and variation between communities. We took extra time to understand what was driving the prices, widened our search and reviewed quotes from the artisans who helped build Safe City. They won the bid, which kept us closest to our budget, and in September our local construction workers broke ground and laid the blocks.

We have spent around $1,500 (about £1,180) on blocks and materials, paying the construction workers and removing the old plumbing. We will keep you posted on whether prices keep rising as the renovation moves along.

It was a big month for the Oworoshoki community in Lagos. Safe City saw 532 patient visits in August, one of our highest this year, and has now cared for 9,594 people since launch, so our 10,000th patient is coming soon! Across both Kwanda-funded clinics we have now served 13,076 people.

246 of August's patients had never visited Safe City before, 46% of all visits, a strong wave of new families still finding their way to us. We saw patients from Oworoshoki, Bariga, Sawmill and Mushin, 12.1km away and our farthest patient this month. 367 of our patients (69%) were women and girls, many supporting families on an average of $11.66 (about £9) per person each month, still well below the poverty line and still without affordable alternatives, and 37% were aged 18 and under, 15% aged 61 and over. As in previous months, malaria was the illness we treated most at 30% of cases, followed by acute upper respiratory infections at 14% and hypertension at 11%.

We spent $516 (about £405) running the clinic this month, and recycled 6lb of waste to help support clinic operations.

Mr Oluwaseyi came to Safe City for a blood pressure check and a consultation with our team. In his own words: "Whenever I come here, whatever I explain to them concerning my health, they give me medications." He is one of more than 500 patients who visited this month, and people feeling heard and leaving with the care they came for, at no cost to them, is exactly the impact we hope for. Nothing went wrong this month, and at this pace our 10,000th patient should come through the doors in the next month or two.

We welcomed 429 people through Care Circle's doors in Itire-Surulere, Lagos, in August, each receiving a free consultation, diagnosis and treatment. The clinic keeps ramping up month on month as it settles in after launch, and has now cared for 3,482 people. Together with Safe City, the two Kwanda-funded clinics have served 13,076 people.

162 of August's patients had never been to Care Circle before, 38% of all visits, as word keeps spreading in Surulere, and we saw people from Itire, Kilo, Aguda, Lawanson and Ijesha. 305 of our patients (71%) were women and girls, who typically manage healthcare for the whole family, and we saw every age, with 25% aged 18 and under and 22% aged 61 and over. Malaria was again the illness we treated most, followed by hypertension at 14%. The families we reach live on an average of $4.64 (about £3.60) per person each month, so a household of four gets by on ₦26,000 (about £14), well below the global poverty line of $2.15 a day.

We spent $498 (about £390) running the clinic in August, mostly on medications and medical supplies, with the rest on clinic operations and materials. Our community plastic waste recycling programme brought in another $27 from selling the plastic we collect, which helps fund the clinic and cuts down mosquito breeding sites around the neighbourhood. Nurses Benedeth and Sylvia delivered care throughout the month, and we are so proud of the team.

Nothing went wrong this month, and with 38% of visits still coming from new patients, we should pass 3,500 people cared for at Care Circle in September.

This month we ran menstrual health and hygiene training at Mutendeu Comprehensive School in rural Kenya and gave Wings Poa reusable sanitary pad kits to 75 girls. Beforehand we ran a pre-survey there to learn what the girls already knew about their periods and how they manage them, and we went back to Makila Comprehensive School for a post-survey to see what has changed since our visit.

That takes us to 955 girls holding a kit and 15 training sessions completed, with 1,277 girls reached through our menstrual health surveys across 20 schools.

The kits are sewn by 12 LitMoms, local women who make the Wings Poa. They have now finished the liners and drawstring bags and have cut the outer cotton fabric for the shields and purses, but those parts cannot be made until the delayed shipment of waterproof PUL fabric arrives. We spent Ksh 129,790 (about £750) this month: Ksh 111,290 to the LitMoms for production, Ksh 10,000 on staff time, Ksh 4,000 on transport for the surveys and distribution, Ksh 2,000 on stationery and printing, Ksh 2,000 on monitoring and Ksh 500 on phone calls.

One girl at Mutendeu told us she had not known much about tracking her cycle, and that getting her period at school could be uncomfortable when she was not prepared. "I am happy because I now know how to count and track my periods. The Wings Poa will also help me when I am in school and I have my period." Once the PUL arrives, the LitMoms will move on to making the shields and purses.

Since receiving the funds from Kwanda in September, we have found the suppliers for the sewing machines for our new workshop in Luanda, Angola, and reviewed our financial plan. No funds have been spent yet.

We have focused mainly on planning and internal organisation, so we are ready to kick off the project and start building the workshop, and not many problems have come up so far. We expect to buy the sewing machines and start setting up the workshop within the next two weeks, once the funds are reimbursed locally, and we will share more as the work begins.