4th floor, Bush House, 72 Prince Street, Bristol. BS1 4QD

Established by Vashti Richards during her time at University to continue the work of her father (who provided support to a young Tibetian refugee whilst visiting India), Deki's philosophy is to empower individuals (mainly women) in developing countries through microfinaning. Deki lists individuals with specific business or social needs on their website and members of the public commit to providing small loans (from £10) directly to them rather than to large organisations. It passes these loans (interest-free) to their field partners who forward them to the selected individuals at a "fair and affordable" rate of interest, thereby giving them an alternative and fairer source of funding to local loansharks. The lenders can monitor the progress of the individual/business they support and, once repaid by the recipient, are given opportunities to reinvest their loan in other businesses (source: deki.org.uk)