DONATIONS: HealthyAfrica needs all the support it can get in order to deliver its mission and objectives. This Valentines Day, as you think about your loved ones spare a thought for those who are unable to afford basic medical services which most of us in the Western world take for granted. You can help to save a life by giving as little as £5 a year per child, or £20 per adult and make the world of difference. For more information please visit the website at http://www.healthyafrica.org/resource/support_us/donations

We need money to continue to expand our programme across the country thereby increasing access to good quality and affordable health care. The local community and service users are expected to fund the running of the clinics. However, the setup cost is being provided by the charity and this is why we need the support of fellow Nigerians to donate funds or volunteer their services,' says Dr Femi Oduneye, founder and Executive Chair of the Board. ‘Sustainability', he continued ‘is one of the core values of HealthyAfrica. Over three-quarters of the money spent on the current health system at present, comes directly out of the pocket of individuals. Our goal is to provide better value for money and better services for the same contribution. We believe that this is the only way we can make our services sustainable and not dependent on continued external funding. The annual fees to be paid by the users of our service are much less than the average annual spend on health and less than the minimum wage per month!'

• Nigeria is made up of 36 states and 776 local government areas.
• It has a population of over 130 million which makes it the most populous country in Africa (double the population of Great Britain)
• 43% of the population are aged 14 years and below and the age band 65 years and over constitutes 3%
• The life expectancy for children born in the year 2002 is estimated to be 48.8 years
• 53% of the population live in the rural areas with poorer access to both public and private infrastructures
• In 2002, 67% of the population over 15 years were literate
• 7 million primary aged children are not in school. Less than 60% of primary aged children attend school
• Over 50 million people do not have access to safe water supply

• The infant mortality rate was 100 per 1000 live births in 2002 (the rate for the UK 5.22 deaths per 1000 live births)
• Nigeria has a crude death rate of 16 per 1000 people
• The under 5 mortality rate per 1000 children was 201 in 2002. One child in five dies before its fifth birthday
• The proportion of children under 5 years with malnutrition was 31% (almost one in three) in 1999
• 17% of newborns have low birth weight and not less than 45% of children under 5 years old have stunted growth
• Malaria is responsible for 25% of infant mortality and 30% of childhood mortality
• There are high numbers of reported cases of vaccine preventable illnesses. It is estimated that over a 100,000 children die from measles in a year due to low uptake of measles vaccine.

• Women in northern Nigeria have a one in fifteen chance of dying through a pregnancy related cause
• The maternal mortality ratio ranges from 339/100,000 in the South-West to 1,716/100,000 in the North-East with the national average being 948/100,000 (the UK rate is about 12/100,000)

• Nigeria has the third largest population of people living with HIV in the world