Half the world still live without access to essential health services. Thats the stark warning from the World Health Organisation. When illness strikes across Africa and Asia, families are forced into impossible choices: pay crippling out-of-pocket costs or go without treatment altogether. For too many, the result is fatal.
From pneumonia in Bangladesh to malaria in Kenya and maternal complications in Nigeria, the story is consistent. The poorest are locked out of healthcare systems designed to leave them behind. But a new tech-driven model is starting to change that.
A digital lifeline
Helpster, a global non-profit platform, is leveraging technology to close life-threatening healthcare gaps. Its model is simple but radical: connect vulnerable patients directly with donors, hospitals and volunteers in real time. The goal is to bypass the bottlenecks of traditional aid and get treatment to those who need it most, when they need it most.
The platforms data from Africa and Asia reveal just how urgent the crisis is, and how tech innovation can be part of the solution.
The conditions claiming the most lives
Pneumonia remains one of the leading killers of children under five in Bangladesh, accounting for 12% of child deaths. In rural Kenya, severe malaria dominates case records, with more than 3.4 million new cases and 11,800 deaths each year. One seven-year-old girl endured three days of fever before Helpster matched her family with a donor. The $109 treatment cost was impossible to cover. Without digital intervention, she would not have survived.
In Nigeria, the challenge is even larger. With 68 million malaria cases and 194,000 deaths recorded in 2021 alone, the country accounts for nearly a third of global malaria deaths. Alongside this, obstetric emergencies such as pre-eclampsia and placenta praevia regularly appear in Helpsters case logs.
Healthcare at catastrophic cost
Behind these statistics are families who simply cannot pay.
In Bangladesh, rural households earn around $155–175 per month. Treating pneumonia costs $170. A breech delivery can cost $265.
In Kenya, severe malaria treatment averages $109, while pneumonia is $133. Just 28% of Kenyans have health insurance, and even then many say it is unaffordable.
In Nigeria, treatment for malaria or surgical conditions ranges from ₦20,000 ($25) to ₦180,000 ($230). Yet fewer than 10% of Nigerians have insurance, leaving 190 million to pay out of pocket.
When half of Nigerians earn just ₦63,126 ($41) a month, according to 2025 data, these costs are catastrophic.
Barriers that keep care out of reach
For families in Bangladesh, Kenya and Nigeria, the obstacles to healthcare are strikingly similar. The first is economic. With households bearing most of the cost, even a basic hospital stay can wipe out a months income.
Distance is another barrier. In rural areas, hospitals may be hours away, reached only by dirt roads or unreliable transport. For a mother in labour or a child with a high fever, those delays can be fatal.
The shortage of medical staff deepens the crisis. Doctors and nurses cluster in urban centres, while rural facilities operate with skeletal teams. Many who are trained leave for better prospects abroad, draining already fragile systems.
Social and cultural factors also hold people back. Women often need permission to seek care, while marginalised groups are treated with suspicion or neglect. And when families finally reach hospitals, corruption and empty drug shelves too often greet them instead of treatment.
Digital health services are expanding but the poorest remain excluded, a cruel irony of progress.
Scoring poverty, prioritising urgency
This is where Helpsters model shows its strength. By applying digital poverty and urgency scores, the platform can prioritise cases based on household income, family size, location and living conditions.
In Bangladesh, the average poverty score is 118/250 with an urgency score of 22/26. In Kenya, the average is 158/250 with the same urgency score. In Nigeria, the average is 147/250 with an urgency score of 18/26. A score above 180 signals extreme poverty. Scores above 22 flag life-threatening emergencies. Most Helpster-supported families fall dangerously close to both.
This data-driven system ensures the most urgent and vulnerable patients are matched with donors first.
A scalable global model
The wider backdrop is bleak. Low- and middle-income countries face a $176 billion healthcare financing gap by 2030. Every $1 invested in maternal and child health yields up to $10 in returns, but global health funding fell 21% between 2024 and 2025. WHO itself faces a $1.9 billion shortfall.
This is why innovation matters. By cutting through bureaucracy, Helpster is demonstrating how technology can stretch limited resources further. Its model of real-time case matching is already saving lives but its real potential lies in scale.
As climate change, displacement and poverty converge, the need for digital-first, community-powered healthcare platforms has never been greater.
Helpster shows that when technology is combined with compassion, inequality doesnt have to be inevitable. The challenge now is speed: how quickly can this model reach every child, every mother, every family still locked out of care?
Join the movement here and help rewrite the future of healthcare access.
Stanley Olisa is the PR Manager for Helpster Charity, a global tech-driven nonprofit easing healthcare access for vulnerable populations across Africa and Asia.
