Updates

In April, 398 community members received free healthcare at Safe City in Oworoshoki, Lagos, the clinic's busiest month of 2026 and a sharp rebound from 241 in March, when a staff change had slowed visits. The total since launch now stands at 7,895 patients, closing in on 8,000.

Two-thirds of April's patients (66%) were returning, the highest rate Safe City has seen this year, a sign the community has settled in with the new team. We welcomed 135 first-time visitors, and 119 of our patients were children under 18, brought in by parents who had nowhere else to turn for free care. 74% were women, most supporting families on around $9.22 (about £7) per person each month, well below the poverty line. The most common conditions we treated were upper respiratory infections (35%), muscle and body pain (30%), malaria (17%) and high blood pressure (13%). We spent $460 (about £360) on medications, supplies and clinic operations.

Mrs Yetunde came to see Safe City for herself after hearing about it from others, and shared what she found on video.

With the new team now firmly established, we expect to pass 8,000 patients next month.

This month we kept producing and distributing our Wings Poa reusable sanitary kits across our rural partner schools, and expanded the menstrual health surveys that help us find the girls who need support most.

We ran new surveys in five schools: Kalau DEB, Kiundwani, Kyamwei, Kyuluni, and Kyambusya Comprehensive Schools. The questionnaires help us understand the challenges girls face around their periods and decide where to focus next.

We then distributed Wings Poa kits to 198 girls across four schools: 31 at Nduluku, 28 at Miondoni, 66 at Makila, and 73 at Kionyweni Comprehensive Schools. That brings the total number of girls who now have a kit to 298. The kits mean girls can manage their periods with dignity and stay in school.

The funding mainly covered continued production of the kits, plus transport and coordination for the surveys and distributions. Beyond the girls receiving kits, the local women who sew them keep earning an income and building their tailoring skills.

Stigma around menstruation is still a challenge in some schools, and it can make girls hesitant to speak openly in our discussions and surveys. We'll keep running menstrual health education so girls feel safe sharing, and our next round of production and distribution will reach more of the schools we've just surveyed.

This past month was all about getting ready to launch in June. We confirmed the dates for all our summer GEAR Lab robotics sessions and advertised them to the 300 young people who took part in our earlier DRILL programme. Applications for the first cohort are open, and we'll send decisions next week.

We also bought and shipped the equipment kits for every session this summer, and brought new mentors onto the team. Five of them are former GEAR Lab participants from last year, and they'll earn a stipend for mentoring this time round. Onboarding and mentor training are scheduled for this week.

We spent $785.54 (about £620) on kits and $60 (about £47) on marketing this month.

We welcome our first cohort of 20 students on 15 June.

This month we held our graduation ceremony at the Government Bilingual High School in Mfou, Cameroon, where the latest cohort of our regenerative-farming and business programme qualified as what we call “Architects of the Soil.”

Government officials, local authorities and our partner organisation RELUFA joined us, and we unveiled the International Gold Level Award the programme won from the School Enterprise Challenge (run by the UK charity Teach A Man To Fish), with a virtual keynote from its chief executive, Nik Kafka.

We held our scholars to a high bar, and 12 of the 20 met the full requirements to graduate. The clearest proof of the model came from Pitou, one of our graduates, who presented the business plan she had built for an organic poultry and vegetable farm. Her pitch was strong enough that a guest in the audience pledged to invest in it on the spot, and she is now a business owner preparing to employ others in her community. Each graduate received a certificate, and we gave letters of recognition to the school's staff.

We spent £1,200 on project kits, logistics and training materials, plus 175,000 CFA (about £225) on the ceremony itself, covering catering, refreshments, transport and certificates.

The eight scholars who did not graduate this round mostly face difficult economic circumstances, and we're planning more intensive mentorship to help them through. We're also assessing a site near Ngoumu, in Mbankomo, for a permanent Ecological Learning Centre, where we want to scale the programme to reach more displaced young people. International transfers for our running costs have been slow to arrive, so we're working with partners in the United States to streamline that.

In April, 310 community members received free healthcare at Care Circle in Itire-Surulere, Lagos, the second month running above 300 and bringing the clinic's total since launch to 1,984 patients, almost 2,000 in roughly eight months.

What stood out was loyalty. Returning patients jumped to 64%, up from 45% the month before, while 112 people (36%) came for the first time. We treated patients from four communities (Itire, Ijesha, Kilo and Lawanson), 84 of them children under 18, ranging from two baby girls to an 82-year-old grandmother. 68% were women, who usually manage healthcare for the whole family, and the average patient lives on $5.44 (about £4) per person each month, well below the poverty line. Malaria was the most common condition (37%), followed by upper respiratory infections (17%) and hypertension (15%). Nurses Benedeth and Sylvia ran the clinic all month, and patients rated their care 99% five stars.

We spent $435 (about £345) on medications, supplies and operations, partly offset by about $53 from the clinic's plastic-waste recycling programme, which also cuts down nearby mosquito breeding sites. Medication costs are creeping up, so we've opened bidding for lower-cost local suppliers. Demolitions in parts of Itire-Surulere continue, though we're hearing fewer reports now, and the clinic stayed open throughout.

Mrs Adeyemo came back for her third visit after a friend first told her about Care Circle, and shared her experience on video.

With repeat visits climbing, we expect to pass 2,000 patients next month.

In March, 241 community members received free healthcare at Safe City in Oworoshoki, Lagos, bringing the clinic's total since launch to 7,497 patients. Numbers dipped from February's 303 because Safe City recently went through a staff change. We think some patients are still adjusting to the new team, while ongoing home demolitions in Oworoshoki continued to displace residents through the month. Healthcare is built on trust, and trust takes time, especially when a familiar face changes.

Despite the dip, 62% of March's patients were returning, the highest returning rate of either of our two clinics this month, which suggests families who've come once keep coming back. Children under 18 made up 34% of visits, 80 kids whose parents had nowhere else to take them, and 73% of patients overall were women, most supporting families on around $7.81 per person per month, well below the global poverty line. One patient travelled 12.1 km from Mushin to reach us, nearly two hours each way. Malaria was the most common condition we treated (30%), followed by muscle and body pain (17%), upper respiratory infections (7%), and high blood pressure (3%). We spent about £296 (US$375) on medications, supplies, and operations.

Mrs Emini, a Safe City patient, shared her experience on video, describing what free care has meant to her.

We expect numbers to bounce back next month as the new team settles in and the community grows comfortable with them.

In March, 304 community members received free healthcare at Care Circle in Itire-Surulere, Lagos, bringing the clinic's total since launch to 1,674 patients. Of those, 167 (55%) were visiting for the first time, up from 41% in February, which means word about the clinic is still reaching new families.

Demolitions in parts of Itire-Surulere are still ongoing and have displaced some community members, but the clinic stayed fully open all month and crossed our 300-patient target. 70% of patients were women, and the average patient lives on $5.37 per person per month, well below the global poverty line. Malaria was the most common condition we treated (38% of visits), followed by upper respiratory infections (18%) and hypertension (14%). We spent about £321 (US$407) on medications and nurses' salaries, and the plastic waste recycling programme attached to the clinic also turned 4 pounds of neighbourhood waste into cash to support operations, while reducing mosquito breeding sites in the process.

Mrs Sandra came to Care Circle for the first time after a friend told her about it, and shared her experience on video.

With first-time visits still climbing, we expect Care Circle to keep growing through April as word about the clinic continues to reach new families.

We trained 20 conflict-affected young people in Goma, Democratic Republic of Congo, over three months. All had been formerly associated with armed forces or groups and were referred to our Fesser and Friends Transit and Orientation Centre after escaping active conflict.

Training covered carpentry, welding, and metal fitting. During the programme, trainees produced furniture, doors, windows, handwashing stations, and metal crates, and some of what they made was sold to reinvest in materials and give them real market experience.

We ran psychosocial support alongside the technical work: regular counselling sessions, group discussions, and recreational activities. Stigma initially made it hard for some trainees to open up, so facilitators shifted to smaller groups and activity-based formats, which gradually built trust.

We spent $2,641 (roughly £2,100) from the Kwanda grant on training delivery, materials, and administration, with bank and admin fees coming to $150.

The main constraint was materials. Trainees had to share and rotate tools and protective equipment, which limited individual practice time, and the three-month duration was tight for fully consolidating trade skills. We are now developing a structured exit plan with start-up kit distribution and follow-up check-ins for graduates, and will look to extend future cycles to six months.

This month, we purchased and installed solar panels at Safe City, our clinic in Oworoshoki, Lagos. We contracted a local vendor and installer from the Oworoshoki community, which also provided a small economic benefit to the area.

In February, 315 community members received free healthcare at Care Circle in Surulere, Lagos, a 50% increase on January that brings the total since the clinic opened five months ago to 1,370 patients. Of those, 41% were visiting for the first time and 59% returned for ongoing care, which suggests families are building a regular relationship with the clinic.

The average monthly household income among patients was about 11,400 naira (roughly £6) for a family of four, working out to about £1.50 per person per month. This is lower than January, which suggests Care Circle is increasingly reaching families with the fewest financial resources. We spent about £310 (US$391) on medications and nurses' salaries.

Earlier months saw a slower ramp-up than expected, partly due to government home demolitions in the area causing displacement and instability. With conditions calming, patient numbers have now picked up, and the slower early months also meant we could stretch the clinic's operating funds and extend its runway through to the end of April.