502 people came to Safe City in July, taking us past 9,000

July was Safe City’s biggest month of the year. Our nurses saw 502 people in Oworoshoki, Lagos, well past the 300 patients a month we aim for, taking the clinic’s total since it opened to 9,062. Safe City accounts for three quarters of the 12,115 people the two Kwanda-funded clinics have cared for between them, all in under two years.

228 of July’s patients were visiting for the first time, 45% of all visits, a strong wave of new families finding us more than a year into running the clinic. We treated patients from Oworoshoki, Bariga, Ketu and Ebute Metta, and from Mushin, 12.1km away and the furthest anyone travelled to reach us this month. 71% were women, most supporting families on an average of $10.14 (about £8) per person each month, still well below the poverty line and still with no affordable alternative closer to home. Malaria was the condition we saw most, alongside respiratory infections and a wide range of everyday health needs.

We spent $497 (about £390) on medications, medical supplies, clinic operations and materials, and our community recycling collection brought in 7lbs of plastic waste, which keeps the neighbourhood cleaner and offsets some of the clinic’s running costs.

Nothing went wrong this month and the team kept pace with the extra demand. At this rate we should pass 10,000 people cared for at Safe City before the end of the year.