Deki is a microfinance charity that allows people to lend from as little as £10 to an entrepreneur in the developing world.
Currently operating in Malawi, Ghana, and South Sudan, Deki loans provide a helping hand for hard-working people to kick start their business and work their way out of poverty.
With Deki, 100% of money you loan goes to the entrepreneur you wish to support, and the full amount is repaid to you within 12 months. www.deki.org.uk
Each month Friska fully funds a Deki entrepreneur through the sale of a special ‘Deki Dish’. All Friska stores take part, so you can drop in for a bite to eat knowing that a portion of your portion will help someone in the developing world to make a new start. See our menu to find out more.
Joska (26) has lived in Agoro, South Sudan with her husband and three children, aged 7, 5 and 2, since their return from exile after the civil unrest. Her husband is a farmer and has a limited income, so in order to provide the family with essentials Joska decided to open a market stall selling on spare food from the farm.
Her business is doing well and the stall is popular in the local market, but with a limited choice of food to sell her profit is capped. With a loan from Deki, she will be able to expand her range of food and the size of her stall by bulk buying other foods such as fish, and cooking oil, onion and salt to cook them in. She will then be able to sell on the cooked products individually at a much higher price, creating enough profit to pay back her loan, feed and clothe her children and invest back into the business so that it can grow even more.
In the future, Joska aspires to raise enough profit from her business to be able to build her family a permanent house. With young children on the brink of going to school, her main aim in life is to be able to support her children through their education and pay their school fees so that they can get better jobs and escape the poverty cycle. She wants to help her family and the whole community by ‘pushing poverty out of my house and in my village’.
Nancy (29) lives in Malawi with her husband and three young children, aged 3, 5 and 7. She and her husband both sell papaya fruit, or pawpaw as they are locally known, at a small market stall in order to support their family. With three young children and Nancy’s elderly grandmother to feed and clothe however, the business is not providing enough of an income for the family to get by.
Fruit is part of the staple diet in the local area and there is a high demand for it in the market, but Nancy currently cannot afford to invest in her business in order to expand it. A loan from Deki will allow her to bulk buy more pawpaws to sell on at a profit, and she also plans to expand into selling other fruits as well.
Nancy dreams of being able to properly support her family and send her children to school. With the profit from her growing business, Nancy aims to one day be able to afford a big farm where she can both grow and sell all sorts of fruits and vegetables, providing a stable source of income for her family.
“We are extremely proud of our partnership with Deki. Being able to help change the lives of people for the better through microfinance projects is an amazing thing to be involved in. Since our partnership began with Deki in 2012, with the help of Friska customers we have funded and changed the lives of many entrepreneurs and their extended families. We look forward to continuing to do this.”
Griff, Ed & the whole Friska Team
Did you know you can join our lending team and unite with other Friska fans to fund entrepreneurs? Once you've registered on the Deki site, join us here: www.deki.org.uk/deki_microloan_teams and select the Friska Partnership Team at check-out when you make a loan.
Nelia is married and a mother of three children aged 6, 8 and 10. Together with her husband she also takes care of her old mother. She sells bananas in her local neighbourhood, which creates vital income for the family to survive.
She believes that there is a high demand for bananas in the local area and the Deki loan will help her to increase the volume of sales. Without the loan, Nelia is not able to improve her living standards and therefore Deki is her only answer.
Due to her passion for cooking, Nelia plans to open a restaurant in the future with existing customers to be her first diners.
Alice (23) is married and has one child aged 2. She and her family have been living in Lobure, Magwi since she returned from exile. Her husband is a driver, but only gets paid per trip, and his income is not keeping his family well. To make ends meet and buy milk for her child, she has been buying in wholesale food products and reselling them in her small shop. Her shop is making progress, and she wants money to increase her stock and grow her business, but due to gender inequality in South Sudan women cannot legally own assets in their own name, so she will not qualify for a bank loan if she applies.
In the future, she aspires “to be a successful business woman”, build her growing family a permanent house to live in, and pay school fees throughout her children’s education. She says, “my time has come to divorce from extreme poverty”.
She requests a loan to buy red beans, cooking oil, peanut butter, silver fish, salt, and onion to retail at a profit.
Kenyangi (36) is married and has 4 children aged 21, 18, 16, and 12. She lives in Namboole on the outskirts of Kampala. Her husband works as a porter at a construction firm and only makes a small income, which is not enough to sustain the family.
To make ends meet and pay her children’s school fees, Kenyangi has been buying and selling charcoal. Her activity is doing well and now she wants to expand the business. She will buy 10 bags of charcoal with her loan. Kenyangi has found it difficult to secure investment capital from a bank because she is a woman and so does not have assets in her own name.
Kenyangi aspires to build a house for her family and to send her children to a better school so that they can reach their highest potential and have the chance to live good lives in their future.
Prester (34) has six children aged 4 to 14 years. He and his wife both work in their restaurant preparing and cooking food. They provide for their children as well as supporting Prester’s father.
Prester will invest his loan in their restaurant business and use the money to buy more food, such as flour, to increase the variety of produce they cook and sell.
A greater variety of products to sell will mean a greater income for the business. As the business continues to grow, Prester aspires to open a larger restaurant to support his family in the future.
Milanda (29) is married and has 4 children aged 10, 8, 6 and 4. She also takes care of her mother. Together with her husband she runs a small grocery shop in Nkhata Bay.
Milanda sells things like lotions, sugar and other basic household items. With a loan of £170, she will be able to expand her business by purchasing more stock for her shop. With this increase in stock, she should be able to sell more and therefore increase her revenue.
The loan will enable to Milanda to improve her family’s current situation. She hopes to buy more clothes and food for her children from the additional profits she makes. She aspires to one day own a bigger store.
Nancy (27) is a single mother with two children aged 7 and 5. As a single parent, sole responsibility over the children’s care, including their school fees, rests with Nancy. As well as this, she also supports her mother.
Nancy is a certified nurse. She borrowed money from her brother in order to start a pharmacy in Magwi and makes her income selling medicines. She now needs a loan of £380 to that she can increase the variety and volume of medicines that she sells.
This would help her feed her family and provide a better standard of living for them. She aspires for her children to excel in their education and to eventually go to university.
Nancy is confident that a loan will give her the opportunity to rejuvenate her business, so much so that she aims to repay it within six months.
Polina (42) buys and sells goats for a living. She is married and has six children who are dependent on her (aged 8, 11, 13, 15, 17 and 19). As well as having so many children to feed Polina also provides for her elderly mother.
At the moment Polina makes almost enough to make ends meet but the chance for growing her business is impossible. This keeps her and her family locked into poverty.
Investment will change everything as Polina will be able to buy more goats and breed more goats. Keeping goats is only the first part of her plan. Once profits are stable Polina intends on opening up a butchery which will diversify the business. It will also give Polina a business to pass down to her children.
Rose (40) is a single mother with many mouths to feed. She has 5 children and she also supports several orphans and her mother who lives with her. Rose makes a living trading in fish. She will invest the loan funds into buying more fish for resale. With the loan she will be able to buy bulk at a much cheaper rate which means better profits on sales.
Rose’s priority is the children's education. The youngest three are 12, 14 and 16 which means that there are still school fees to pay. With the loan she will be able to boost her fish retail business and start saving for her children’s education.
Viwemi (49) is a married father of three children aged 18, 14 and 12. Viwemi buys and sells bananas for a living and uses the small profit that he makes to provide for the children and also for Viwemis elderly mother.
At the moment Viwemi is struggling to grow the business because like so many of our entrepreneurs he lacks the capital he needs to buy stock in bulk. Once funded everything will become much easier and Viwemi will start making enough profit so that he can not only save but also reinvest into the business ensuring its stability.
In the future Viwemi aspires to make enough money to open up his own small farm. A microloan will mean that he is one step closer to making this happen.
Hally, aged 35, is a fisherman who looks after his two children, aged 2 and 5. Along with his wife, who works on a farm, Hally also cares for his mother.
Together, the Chirwas have been able to send their children to school, but their income is not secure.
A small loan of just £90 will enable Hally to invest into expanding his business which will increase his activities. Selling more fish will allow him to earn more.
In the future Hally would like to open a grocery store, which would bring a stable income and take him away from the sometimes dangerous job of fishing.
At only 19 years old, Prisca is responsible for looking after and financially supporting her mother and father. After finishing her education, she started work straight away, setting up her own business selling tomatoes, vegetables and eggs.
Working 56 hour weeks to make her business a success, Prisca is requesting a loan so that she can start diversifying and stocking a wider range of items. Her aim is to be able to take good care of herself and her parents.
Although she is only young, Prisca is extremely ambitious and wants to eventually open her own shop.
Lydia (38) is a mother of four children (aged 4, 6, 8 and 10) and she also cares for some orphans. She runs a small dairy farm of just a couple of cows. In order to keep her animals healthy she will need to invest in medicines and veterinary care. With the Deki loan she will be able to take good care of her animals and make sure that her business stays sustainable.
Healthy cows will milk more and bring more income. Lydia’s husband is a farmer and helps out at the cow farm. Together they sell the milk in the local community to earn income.
In the future Lydia would like to purchase another cow and grow her activities even further. With increased income she can feed her children properly three times a day and have money to buy school supplies.
Dagan (36) runs a vibrant vegetable store where she sells a variety of vegetables of all shapes and sizes. She is requesting a loan so that she can expand her range by buying ‘some fresh tomatoes, eggplant, green and red pepper, and red oil’. She has been slowly growing the business over the past few years, where she started off just selling red peppers.
Dagan works very hard at her business (52 hours per week) when she returns home after a busy day she looks after her two children of 18 and 9 years old.
Not only would this loan help Dagan and her husband, a taxi driver, to support their family, it will also provide an invaluable foundation from which to achieve her future dreams: “for the future I plan to make my business large”.
Bindu (35) runs a small poultry farm. She used to be a house wife but wanted more independence and the opportunity to provide for her family. She is married and has two children (17 and 7 years old).
Bindu works long hours on the farm, tending to the birds. She will invest the loan into hens and will also buy some materials for the farm. She will be able to make repairs and breed more birds after she has received the investment.
Growing her business will mean that paying for her children's school fees will be much less of a strain and she will be able to provide her family with everything they need to be comfortable.
Massé (39) lives in Lomé, Togo and runs a small business trading in shrimp. She buys and sells shrimp but at the moment her profits are very low as she pays such a high price for her stock. She will use her Deki loan to buy shrimp in bulk so that she can pay a much lower bulk price and spend less time and money on transporting the goods. This will help to make the business more profitable.
Massé is married and her husband works as a taxi driver. They have 3 children and they also support an extended family member who relies on the family income.
Massé plans to invest her profits into the business to expand her activities further. Her dream is to be able to travel to Ghana where bulk prices for most commodities are much lower than Togo.
With the increased family income Massé can support her childrens’ education, investing into their future.
