It’s the ethical Christmas gift that offers a financial helping hand to people trying to survive in the toughest conditions. Lendwithcare gift vouchers allow Britons to loan relatively small sums of money to people in 11 countries – including individuals trying to improve their lives amid the deepening economic crisis in Zimbabwe. The lender receives no interest, but in the vast majority of cases the money is repaid – and the charity then encourages the lender to recycle the cash as another loan.

It helps people such as Nancy Tarumba, who runs four different small enterprises from her home an hour or so from Zimbabwe’s capital, Harare – making handmade bags and jewellery, offering tailoring services, rearing chickens and running a small plant nursery – and is always thinking about her next business venture: she is now taking orders for homemade Christmas cakes.

Then there is Catherine Chipinda, who has been successfully managing two businesses – a “tuck shop” and a small kitchenware store – during extremely challenging times while heavily pregnant, and Netsayi and Gracia, who have both felt the impact of the current crisis: Netsayi recently obtained a licence to sell fish to the people in her community, while Gracia is raising chickens, growing vegetables and thinking about rearing goats.

Catherine Chipinda runs a small kitchenware store.

Lendwithcare is a peer-to-peer microfinance website set up by the aid charity Care International UK. When you buy someone a Lendwithcare gift voucher, they can go online to choose an individual to lend the money to. This might be a coffee farmer in Ecuador, a market stall holder in Zambia or a shopkeeper in the Philippines. She or he will use the money to start or expand their small business, thereby helping them to feed their family or send their children to school.

Remember that 100% of each loan goes to the entrepreneur. The idea is that the money will be repaid, at which point the voucher recipient can withdraw the money for themselves, or lend it to another budding entrepreneur.

About 80% of the Lendwithcare entrepreneurs are women. Some have been widowed and are carrying on running the family enterprise, while others are single parents looking to get a new venture off the ground. There are also groups of women seeking loans.

Since the website’s launch in 2010, more than 52,000 people have lent in excess of £20m to more than 94,000 entrepreneurs, helping people in countries including Cambodia, Ecuador, Malawi, Pakistan, Peru, the Philippines, Rwanda, Vietnam, Zambia and the occupied Palestinian territories.

The vouchers are available in various amounts starting from £15, and can be emailed to the recipient or printed out. Supporters can go on to the website to view profiles of the entrepreneurs and choose who to support. In most cases the voucher will be a contribution towards the total amount the individual is looking for.

Gracia and Netsayi have both felt the impact of the current crisis.

These are loans, not handouts: the money is paid back in instalments to the local microfinance institution that has partnered with Care International in that country, and then credited to the UK lender’s Lendwithcare account.

The default rate is very low – about 0.2% – but nevertheless there is a possibility that the entrepreneur won’t be able to pay back their loan. And the lender bears the exchange rate risk – in other words, fluctuations in exchange rates may mean there are times when the repayments are lower than those set out in the schedule. People lending to entrepreneurs in Zimbabwe are being told they need to be aware that “there is an additional risk that some of the loans might be delayed or defaulted”.

Lendwithcare has been working in Zimbabwe since 2015, but the current crisis has proved a challenge: fuel is short and other vital commodities are scarce, prices have soared, and confidence in government “bond notes” – introduced in 2016 to ease a cash shortage – has collapsed, with many people shunning them in favour of US dollars. Nevertheless, Lendwithcare says it has decided to continue supporting its two partner microfinance organisations in Zimbabwe (Thrive and the MicroLoan Foundation) – and ultimately their borrowers – because it believes their services are needed now more than ever.

When Guardian Money logged on to the site this week, there were 19 individuals and groups in Zimbabwe looking for funding. They included the five-member Ruvimbo group, based near Harare, which has requested a loan of £1,075. Tecla Maria Musekiwa, one of the members, runs a business selling school uniforms and wants to use her share of the money to buy more clothes to sell, with the aim of financing her children’s education. Meanwhile, the four-strong Zengeza Glory group is seeking a £1,290 loan, with member Sipiwe Dhumukwa planning to use her share to buy more stock for her tuck shop.