The life I am currently living is incomparably different from the life I would be living if I had never received the transfer from GiveDirectly. The leaking roof I was used to in my old house is no more, a reason enough to smile and be thankful to give directions for the generous support they gave us.

In both our village and also in my household, GiveDirectly did everything so well. Every other household that initially had an old house made to construct a new one. Those who never had livestock are currently selling milk. All over the village, the testimony is all clear that all work done by the organization was so well.

Upon receiving the second transfer from GiveDirectly, I decided to spend all of it on buying construction materials with the plan to construct a new house after our old house was destroyed and carried away by the heavy rains. It was a hard time for us since we had to start it from scratch. Construction of a kitchen and one bigger living room was in our plan and we had to lay down strategy on how to make up to all that with the amount we were receiving from GiveDirectly. We managed to source all the required construction materials, transport them home and saved some for the construction force. Currently, we have our kitchen complete and in our final stages in furnishing the other house.

It had been three years of struggling to pay school fees for my children and leaving my house incomplete. I had decided to prioritize my children's education since I knew that if they get a quality education, they would one day help me in completing this house if not building a new one for me. When I received my transfer, I was able to use it to finish the construction process. Even though I have not fixed doors for the rooms inside, window glasses and tiles, I am now happy since I believe that I will be living in this house soon. My joy is now complete since my children are doing well in school and I am almost completing building this house. Being able to continue with the construction work without failing to pay my children's school fees is the biggest difference in my daily life.

It was still early in the morning after waking up when one of my children came to inquire whether I had received the money GiveDirectly had promised us. It was at this moment when I requested him to check for me my Mpesa balance. My heart was filled with happiness after he confirmed to me that the money was already in my account. This money gave me hope that I would be able to complete building a house for my family.

When I received my first transfer, I bought some building materials to use in finishing building a house for my family. I bought some paints, waterproof polythene paper, gravel, sand, cement and also paid a mason for this work. I settled on this since I had started building a spacious house for my family three years ago but I was not able to complete this work due to overwhelming family needs. I had decided to put it on hold so that I would concentrate on my children's education first. Using the remaining amount, I bought one sack of maize flour for our consumption.