My wife and I are still waiting for the government placements. In the meantime, I plan to open a retail shop to earn a livelihood. Therefore, to accomplish the goal, I will try borrowing a loan from the micro-finance whose interest is friendly.

GiveDirectly empowered my community tremendously. It is noticeable all over the village on the good deeds that the organisation did for us. People built houses, and others bought good dairy cows and also paid school fees for their children. We are forever grateful for the unrestricted cash that uplifted our lives. The organization does a marvellous job, hence I have not seen things that were not done well.

My wife and I are fresh graduates from the university where we did a teaching course. We are still waiting for the government placement. I teach at a nearby school temporarily, but my wife is still unemployed. Buying a cow was hard because whatever little that I earned goes to our general upkeep. Upon the receipt of my second transfer, I thought of buying a dairy cow worth $300 to cut the cost of buying milk daily. I used to buy two litres in a day where I would spend $10 a day, which was expensive. Thereafter, I used the remaining amount on clothes, foodstuffs and in improving my house. I am forever grateful for the support that brought so much happiness to our lives.

It was around 5:00pm that day and I had just left my teaching place for home. Just when my I was in a nearby town, I heard my phone ring. I was actually in an hotel waiting to be served by one of the waiters when I heard my phone ring. Upon checking I confirmed that GiveDirectly had sent us money as earlier promised. I was filled with immeasurable joy at that moment and I could not wait to get home and share the good news with my wife. When I got home and shared the news with my wife, she was equally very amused and happy. She immediately advised me to transfer all the money from MPESA to MSHWASRI account which I did for the safety of our money. She also reminded me on the need to stick to our earlier plans so as to ensure we have maximum benefits with the transfer.

The biggest difference in my daily life is the semi permanent house that I am almost constructing. I now have some certain degree of peace that I did not have before receiving the transfer. The house that we are currently living in has been a source of embarrassment rather than pride for us. I would often feel like not letting any of my friends visit and could only hope that one day I will be able to build a better house. With that dream almost becoming a reality, I now feel so much at peace at heart and looking forward to having it completed soon. I cannot help but be grateful to GiveDirectly for enabling me do this.

We used KES 37000 to buy building materials for construction of our new house and used another KES 11000 to buy a cow for keeping and saved another KES 7000 that will help me in assembling more building materials like cutting of timber and meeting casual labour cost. I thought of building a new house since the one that we currently live in is mud walled and often affected by heavy rains. It has also made me loose my self esteem especially with friends whom we do merry go round chamas with. I often felt like I was lagging behind and I would not even feel free to have them at my home since it was not so pleasing structure. Right now I can comfortably host them knowing better that I will be able to show them progress of the construction work. As for the cow that I bought, it is one of the investments that will help me sustain my family even as I look forward to securing a job with he government. I recently got married and I am making all preparations such that by the time I have children I will be able to take care of them without having a divided mind and with all the resources that I require in place. I could not thank GiveDirectly enough for the transfer.