Four Bradford schoolgirls are on the brink of forging a partnership with a leading aid charity which could save countless Third World lives.

Katie Deardon, Isabella Ricordo, Megan Crowley, and Kimi Omolokun, all pupils at St Joseph’s Catholic College in Cubcliffe road, Manningham, beat hundreds of young people from around the country to land first place in the contest Solutions for the Planet – the Great Debate.

Supported by the Royal Academy of Engineering, it asked young participants to come up with a business idea which could help solve a contemporary issue.

The Bradford quartet, all 14, took inspiration from the gift packs given to new mums in the UK and proposed extending the idea overseas to help address the appalling mother and baby death rates in Africa.

The girls researched the equipment necessary to provide vital aid in a bid to address the infant mortality rate in Malawi, where there are 90.5 deaths per 1,000 births compared with 4.9 in the UK.

After presenting their ideas to competition judges at the House of Commons, they were delighted to finish on top.

Now, bosses from Catholic aid charity Cafod are looking at including the girls’ pack in a forthcoming World Gifts catalogue.

Megan said: “We put in so much work and were so excited to get to London, so when we won we were just thrilled. But we know that having got this far, it can go further, so we really want to see our packs in the developing world.

Isabella added: “Some of the mums in Africa are the same age as us.”

The Pack for Babies – A Pack for Life proposed by the girls is priced at £50 and includes a water filtration system, a one-year course of vaccines to immunise babies against preventable disease, a mosquito net, a woolly hat and vitamin tablets – all in a pot that could be used for bathing the baby and cooking.

Funds to train women to act as birth attendants have also been factored into the price.

Kimi said they hoped the pack’s pot could be made from scrap metal in Africa. The girls hope to get the pack into production as quickly as possible.

“Mums and babies in Africa deserve to get the same care as they do in the UK,” added Katie.

Margaret Siberry, Cafod’s diocesan manager for the Diocese of Leeds, has been working with the girls to help put the pack into production.

She said: “I think it’s a really innovative idea. Cafod applauds the compassion of these young girls and we are going to do everything we can to support them.”

Peter Styring, Professor of Chemical Engineering and Chemistry at Sheffield University, was one of the competition’s judges.

He said: “We were absolutely blown away and Cafod’s involvement and support showed us that it is a genuinely realistic idea.

“I truly believe that with the right backing this great idea can become a reality.”

Kimi added: “Even if we had not won the competition we would have pushed to make the pack a reality.”