Despite my many ambitions, the obligation to pay school fees for my three children every term may prevent me from setting clear timelines for my future goals. Because I am still reliant on seasonal casual laborers for co-structure work, I am working hard to repay them in their schools so that I can devote more time to renovating the current house we live in. I finished the walls, roof, and some of the interior furnishings a year ago, but I left the floors that need blasting unfinished to make cleaning easier and to improve hygiene. I believe the availability of the casual work I have been doing is critical to the success of this new goal. 

GiveDirectly rekindled the positive energy in our village by providing us with a free cash transfer at a critical time. We were impoverished and could not afford to start any new projects aside from providing daily food for our families and paying school fees for our children, which was still a struggle. Cash assistance was unique and efficient because everyone knew what they needed to spend it on. The enrollment process was also fair, as the majority of those who were visited were enrolled and received an equal amount credited to their accounts. I saw nothing wrong with the entire process and hope that other people in subsequent villages have the same positive experience with GiveDirectly.

I have a son in college, a daughter in secondary school, and my youngest daughter is currently in primary school. It has been difficult for my spouse and me to pay their school fees on time while also ensuring the continuous provision of other basic household needs. I was grateful when I received the first and second transfers, which relieved me of a significant burden after settling most bills and provided me with a bit of relief from the routine casual labor I had been doing on construction sites. I used $350 of the second transfer to pay for my daughter's and son's tuition, who are in secondary school and college, respectively. This gave them plenty of time to study for their exams and attend all of their classes without being sent home. I also spent $80 on two goats that I intend to breed and sell the offspring to meet future household and school needs for my children. In addition, I spent the remaining funds on groceries that my family of five continues to consume.

It was at 8 pm and I was having supper with my family when suddenly my phone rang notifying me of a new message. I checked it immediately since we had earlier on at around 3 pm, heard other people in our neighborhood saying that they had received the transfers. We were thus eagerly waiting for it. I was so happy and I broke the good news to my family when I opened the SMS and I read that we had too received the promised transfer of KES 55000 from GiveDirectly. We celebrated together and we gave thanks to God for the blessing.

The transfer has brought a big difference in our lives as a family. We now have milk for our consumption having bought the cow and hence we no longer incur the cost of buying some. Our children have not been sent home due to school fees arrears and hence they have had ample time to study.

We spent KES 35000 of our recent transfer on buying another cow. The cow that we had been rearing had dried and hence we had been forced to buy milk for our consumption. We thus saw it best to buy another one so that we could have a constant supply of milk. We had thought of buying the cow before but unfortunately, we were not in a position to since most of the money that we earn from farming, usually goes to the payment of school fees for our four children. We are thus glad and grateful to GiveDirectly because they enabled us to achieve our goal. Apart from the above, we also took KES 10000 that we used on paying school fees for our two children in secondary school, and with the remaining amount, we bought clothes and food with it.