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Last year Katie Dearden, Isabella Ricordo, Megan Crowley, and Kimi Omolokun, all from St Joseph's college in Bradford, won a national business competition to come up with a novel way to help improve the planet.

Their aim was simple, to make a difference to help save the lives of women and babies in the developing world. Their idea to create a virtual 'pack for life' was so good that international aid agency CAFOD has adopted it and will be producing the packs, as part of their world gifts range.

Their idea to save lives is now all set to become a real life-saver.

"Some mums in Africa are the same age as us," says Katie. But being a young mum in poor parts of Africa is very different from here in the UK. Ninety out of 1,000 of African babies will die - 18 times more than in the UK.

Their solution costs £30 and includes a water filtration system, vaccines to immunise babies against disease, a mosquito net, a woolly hat and vitamin tablets – all in a pot for bathing the baby and cooking.

Megan explains how they came up with the idea: "Last year when we were in Year 9, and we had to come up with a solution for the planet. We thought mums and babies here get all the care they need but what about mums and babies in Africa? That's how it came about and it went from there."

"Our idea has become a reality and we've finally got this far," adds Katie. "This is a way of really making a difference."

Saving lives in Africa

Isabella says their friends and family have shown a great deal of support: "We've had a really good response from teachers and governors and from our family and friends. We've learnt things that we can't learn in the classroom."

They've also spent a lot of their time trying to raise money for the project, as Kimmy explains:  "We've gone around schools and churches to promote the idea. It feels like it's a full-time job and we've £17,000 for the project so far."

You can find out more about their trip to Nigeria on their return on www.bbc.co.uk/westyorkshire.