Our savings group will be distributing the saved money in February, I have saved for a while now and I had a number of things in mind that I hoped I will achieve using this savings. I have wanted to learn driving, I have a friend who works in the city as a driver and he is usually getting jobs so regularly. I also want to be able to get high paying jobs like he does and so I hope to achieve this by undertaking a driving course. I am also an animal rearer, I would want to add more animals, I have 40 chicken and 7 goats, I had10 goats but I sold 3 due to emergencies. I want to increase the number of this animals as well as add more types of animals to my small farm. I would also want to set up grocery stall which can earn an income. I may not achieve this in succession but this are the things I hope to achieve using my transfers.

I have been in a savings group for as long as I have been in the Givedirectly project. I save a monthly amount of $14. In November the remaining $19 went into buying clothes for myself, my then 5 month child and my wife. I also got some toiletries using that cash. In December I got three chicken at $3 each and hence got three chicken, I bought medicine for my child at $5 and also got diapers as well as food for my family as need arose. In January I spent $20 paying a debt I had taken, I had been stuck and needed finances as some emergencies came up. I also spent the money to buy some shoes for me and my child at $3.5 while the rest was used on food, toiletries and diapers as the need arose.

I was previously working as a shopkeeper but had to quit my job after a disagreement with my boss over salary increment. Since then, I have been relying on casual jobs especially in construction sites which are unreliable and not quite easy to find within the rural areas. This then forced me to relocate to Mombasa city where such jobs are easy to find. In the few months that I have been here, I have concluded that I do not want to work in this sector for too long as the job is tedious yet earns very little. For this reason, I have decided to take a driving course after which I can apply for a job in the transport sector as a pubic vehicle driver. This will give me a better a more stable income and also allow me to be with my family which I can later on relocate to the city as well once I have a decent earning. To achieve this, I have been saving part of my monthly transfers in a local savings group consisting of other recipients within the village and once I receive my share of the savings, I will use it as an enrolment fee in a driving school.

I joined a savings group where I save part of my transfers monthly in order to raise enough money to achieve bigger dreams I have such as acquiring skills that can help me obtain a decent job. This is due to the fact that I am currently out of a job after I was forced to quit my job as a shopkeeper due to ideological differences with my employer. My wife and I recently welcomed our first born child who was born at a time when we were experiencing famine and severe lack of food within my locality. Coupled with the loss of my job, I had nothing to fall back on other than the transfers which was the source of the money for all the baby requirements, foodstuff and other basic household needs.

I am now a father of one. I had no family when Givedirectly came in but now things have changed. I need to put a lot of focus on nurturing my young family. I am also not working at the moment as my employer asked me to take time off after my wife gave birth. I want to build a sustainable business through animal rearing that I can depend on when need arises. I want to use my savings to buy animals maybe goats which will multiply and I cans ell to get a dairy cow whose milk I can sell and get income. I also want to get a drivers license and so I hope to use the savings to also pursue this by paying for driving school.

A couple of us started an informal savings group once we were enrolled and had an assurance we would receive transfers from Givedirectly. I contribute $14 every month towards the savings group while I spend the rest of the money on food, seeking health services of buying provisions for my new born child. I spent $20 of my April transfer that was left after making my savings contribution on food, I also spent a similar amount on food in April. In the month of may I spent $13 on paying for my wife who had gone to hospital as she was due and gave birth to our child. I spent $1.5 on diapers, I spent about $4 on some food so she could regain her strength and spent $7 on transporting her to and from the hospital.

Now that I am done paying dowry and we are living with a partner, I am content with the choice I made, which was made possible by the transfers. I had hoped to save enough money this year to finally enrol in a driving school, which would eventually aid in my employment. In order to obtain financial gain, I also hoped to invest a portion of the transfers in the purchase of a few goats and chickens. Last but not least, given that it can be difficult at times, I will most definitely look into nutrition.

Since the beginning of last year, I have been setting aside a small portion of my salary because I was hoping to be married soon and I knew that I would have to prepare myself to pay dowry in accordance with custom. My funds in January came to KES 15,000, so I added KES 2,000 from the transfers I had just received to bring it to KES 17,000, which I then used to pay for my bride. After that, I had a balance of KES 1,400, which I primarily used to purchase furniture and other home necessities like cutlery. In order to save money for the dowry, I decided to save all of my transfers I had received in December.

Allow me to thank GiveDirectly for the support they have provided my family before I can mention what it does well. GiveDirectly made our visions to be alive again as some of us had given up already on life. There is a great improvement in the living standard of the community as we had the freedom to spend the transfer based on our own wishes. This led to a reduction in conflict level as many families came to an agreement since the transfers were issued to every family member with an Identification card and above 18 years. What GiveDirectly can improve on is that when they are sending out SMS alerts, they should consider the illiterate, so that they just be called and then be updated on the rising matters.

I had started a project of rearing livestock using my first transfer in which I bought 5 chickens.  When I received my second transfer, buying more livestock was my first priority item. I bought 1 goat worth $ 30 because I believe goats and chickens can easily multiply within a very short time and hence make more profits. The profits that we will make from the chicken and goat-keeping business shall be used to help pay fees for my younger siblings who are still school-going and meet other immediate needs of my family such as food. I come from a family of 11 children, 5 boys, and 6 girls. My parents survive on small casual laborer jobs within the village with a daily pay as low as $ 3. I have also decided to continue with livestock rearing so that I can pay my own college fees as I plan to go back to school. I am a standard 7 school dropout and I can't wait to quench my thirst for education with the opportunity provided by GiveDirectly. I am so happy and grateful for the support provided by GiveDirectly, it was dream come true.

At the time of enrollment in GiveDirectly's transfers, I had some doubts about its ability to issuance financial support to all community members. However, on the day transfers were sent, I had mixed reactions. It was unbelievable that what I was doubting was real. It drove me to ecstasy feelings. I could not control my tears of joy to notice that I was successful in the program, and for the next five years, I shall always be benefiting from GiveDirectly's transfers.

For a long time, my dream of starting a poultry farm had not materialized. I had begun to have doubts about my ability to execute that project. Fortunately, GiveDirectly's transfer restored my hope. Starting and running a poultry farm with three hens has had a positive impact on my life. The transfer even enabled me to obtain some chicken feeds that I had budgeted for when making my plans.

Although I am still single and not planning to marry soon, I have been preoccupied with what I can do to create an earning stream. By considering the options available to me, I settled for poultry farming. However, I could not venture into this investment because I had the challenge of raising capital. Immediately after I received my transfer, I spent KES 900 buying three local hens. Even though I was still looking for more, I did not get some. Currently I have KES 2,100 that I am planning to use to purchase additional hens and chicken feeds. I am undertaking poultry farming because it is a viable venture.