A Guiding Life

Back in 2014 I 'spent' £10 on a Deki loan.

I lent it to a farmer in West Ghana, he needed to borrow £60 to buy seeds and fertiliser. Once the whole loan had been raised and I guess his profit on his farm started to turn around, he paid me back.

I added another £10 and loaned £20 to a shop keeper in Soweto that needed £280 to buy a generator because of electricity supply cuts were affecting his business. Again, my money was repaid back.

So I added another £10 and loaned £30 to Alfacksadi "He lives with his wife and children in Chiwisi on the shores of Lake Malawi. He has eight children aged between 18 and 2 and most of them attend school.The family also support and care for two orphaned boys. Alfacksadi runs a fishing business and his wife is a farmer. He works on average 56 hours a week. He has applied for a loan through Deki to increase his working capital. He plans to buy more fish with his loan, which will help him increase his sales and income. Alfacksadi said that the loan "will help to improve the living standard" of his family. In the future, he aspires to build a good house for his family." Alfacksadi needed £100. This time his total loan was raised very quickly and I received back all £30 very fast indeed.

So, (because now it was a habit!) I added another £10 and I had £40 to relend.

I have given £10 to Primrose in Sowetto. She needed £250 to buy a computer and printer to help her start an internet cafe business. She raised all of the money for her loan and has paid half of it back already. I like the sound of single mum Primrose, I'm really rooting for her to have a successful business.

I gave £10 to Deline, also in Sowetto, who has bought a new sewing machine for her business, she hasn't paid any back yet.

£10 to Marta who "lives in Wabigalo, Uganda after she was displaced by war from South Sudan along with her family. Her husband and three children, aged between 5 and 13, live with her. All her children attend the school. Her husband runs a small business. Marta owns an off-licence. Marta sells both alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks in the community of Wabigalo and her business is doing well. She dreams of expanding her business but she does not qualify for a bank loan because she's a refugee. Instead she has applied for a loan through Deki. Marta will use the loan to buy six jerry cans of alcohol meet the customers' needs. This will increase her income. Her dream is to save money and build a house for her family. 'The loan will pay for my children's school fees and improve my standards of living together with my children' she said."

And £10 to Rachel in Nhkata Bay, who is starting a pig farm at home so she can work from home whilst looking after her children.

These people are working hard to make a good life in their own countries. I feel really privileged to have the opportunity to help some of them achieve that. I also feel that the more we can help people pull themselves out of poverty in their home lands, the less they will have the need to take perilous journeys to Europe risk their lives and putting their hard earned money into the hands of unscrupulous traffickers.

It is really easy to do, just a few clicks and you choose the entrepreneurs you want to lend to, see the payments going and coming back.

It started for me because I thought the gift vouchers made really good presents for teenagers, a way to teach them more about the world we live in and how they can make a difference to people a long way away and they can actually have the cash themselves when the loan is repaid (you don't have to relend it, you can take your money back out)

I loaned £10 myself that Christmas and have continued to relend the money, it gives me a sense of doing something when sometimes it seems impossible to know what to do to help people that weren't born into the same western privilege as most of us.

I get a little bit annoyed when someone buys me 'a goat' for Christmas. It's a juxtaposition, I know I should get a warm fuzzy feeling inside but I also wanted something for 'me'. You just put your goat to one side and poof the fun is gone.

But I do like giving (and receiving) Deki loans as gifts because the person you give it to has to do something with it. They decide who to loan the money to and they get the money back for themselves at the end of it. It's a hands on charitable gift.

The person you give the loan to will pick the person they choose to loan the money to and then yes, they have to wait, but the loan will be repaid fully in 6-12 months. At that point your recipient can then choose to withdraw the money from the scheme and keep it for themselves or invest it with another entrepreneur.

They can have a direct impact on people’s lives by lending anything from £10 to an entrepreneur in the developing world. 100% of the money you lend goes directly to the person they choose to support.
Deki is a charity designed to help people work their way out of poverty, so the loans don’t generate profits for lenders.

There are lots of people to choose from that are looking for money for different business ideas. The total loans are often made up of mini loans from lots of different people so with £10 you can 'complete' a loan and set the person off on their journey to work their own way out of poverty.

This is a great way to give money as a gift to a tween or teen and let them make a difference to a life but with complete autonomy, they choose who, what for and they will see the money come back to them.

To give a loan as a gift you just pay for it and print out a gift voucher, they have something to unwrap and then they can do their favourite thing - log onto the internet!

And remember the money does come back to them and if they want to they can take it back for themselves and buy the iTunes voucher they always dreamed of, or they can re-lend it to another person of their choice.

I think it's a great way to introduce children to charitable giving, to give them a sense of being part of one large world and learn that as individuals they can make a difference to someone very far away.

The fact that they can have the money in the end if they want it makes it different to your standard 'goat' or 'mosquito net' gift. But maybe they will re-lend it so that it really can be the gift that keeps on giving.

Have a look: