My life is different from how it was in that, our families are happier and with tighter bonds just because my husband finally paid a visit to our place for an introduction. Apart from that, the fact that I now have cows makes me happy. Very soon the cows will start producing milk. This is an investment that we have planned to use in paying school fees for our children. We are actually saving for their secondary education since it is normally hectic for most of the parents. Their future is bright and through education, I know that there will be a lot of opportunity for them. They will definitely live a better life than mine.

In my opinion, what GiveDirectly does is unique and efficient in terms of uplifting the living standards of poor people. The unconditional money really helped us to do a lot of things without taking loans. For instance, I was able to pay school fees for my children and even bought a dairy cow.

I spent part of my transfer to purchase a water tank. I wanted to harvest a lot of water during this rainy season since I did not want to go back to using dam water that is normally unclean. Besides that, I also bought two sacks of maize and rice. We have already planted and really waiting for the harvesting season which will be April next year. I had to buy a good stock which will sustain as for a long time before the harvest. Having an investment that will steer us towards our future plan was also our priority and so this saw us buy a cow. We finally used the remaining amount on an introduction ceremony. I have stayed with my husband for four years but we had never taken this important step due to lack of money. I am very happy that we chose to do this. It has really shown the commitment that my husband has for our marriage. I thank Give Directly for the financial support because through them we have been able to achieve a lot.

My life is currently different from how it was before because I now own two heifers. With this, I believe that my children will have a quality education that I was not able to get. The two heifers are assets to me that I will depend on educating my children. I will be using the income from milk sales to achieve this. Also, my family will always have milk for consumption and I will no longer be buying them anymore.

It was around 3 am when I received two message alerts on my phone. After reading its contents, I became so happy as I knew that I would be able to fulfill my laid down plans.

I spent part of my first transfer on purchasing two heifers to add to the cows I had Initially. I believe that adding the two heifers to my herd is a big achievement because I will produce more milk for both household consumption and sales. I believe the offsprings will give security of financial emergencies arising in my family. In addition to this, I also spent some amount to buy some building materials to use in building a spacious kitchen for my family. I settled on this since the one we had was old and its walls had started cracking. I am currently spending the remaining part of the transfer to provide for my family's daily basic needs such as food and in paying other household expenses.